Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

US Astronaut Back Home After Longest Mission by Woman

NASA astronaut Christina Koch returned to Earth safely Thursday after shattering the spaceflight record for women with a stay of almost 11 months aboard the International Space Station.

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AFP) — NASA astronaut Christina Koch returned to Earth safely Thursday after shattering the spaceflight record for women with a stay of almost 11 months aboard the International Space Station.

Koch touched down at 0912 GMT on the Kazakh steppe after 328 days in space, along with Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and Alexander Skvortsov of the Russian space agency.

Koch was shown seated and smiling broadly after being extracted from the Soyuz descent module in Roscosmos space agency video footage from the landing site.

"I am so overwhelmed and happy right now," said Koch, who blasted off on March 14 last year.

Parmitano pumped his fists in the air after being lifted into his chair while Skvortsov was shown eating an apple.

Kazakhs on horseback were among those to witness the capsule landing in the snow-covered steppe as support crews gathered around the three astronauts, NASA commentator Rob Navias said.

"I've never seen this," Navias said, reporting that the men stopped to chat with engineering personnel.

Koch, a 41-year-old Michigan-born engineer, on Dec. 28 last year beat the previous record for a single spaceflight by a woman of 289 days, set by NASA veteran Peggy Whitson in 2016-17.

Koch called three-time flyer Whitson, now 60, "a heroine of mine" and a "mentor" in the space program after she surpassed the record.

She also spoke of her desire to "inspire the next generation of explorers."

Koch also made history as one half of the first-ever all-woman spacewalk along with NASA counterpart Jessica Meir — her classmate from NASA training — in October last year.

The spacewalk had been postponed because the space station did not have two suits of the right size for women, leading to allegations of sexism.

Before the 3½-half hour journey back to Earth, Koch told NBC on Tuesday that she would "miss microgravity."

"It's really fun to be in a place where you can just bounce around between the ceiling and the floor whenever you want," she said, smiling as she twisted her body around the space station.

She will head to NASA headquarters in Houston, via the Kazakh city of Karaganda and Cologne in Germany, where she will undergo medical testing.

Koch's medical data will be valuable to NASA scientists as the agency draws up plans for a long-duration manned mission to Mars.

Koch's return comes after an ad for a skincare brand ran during an intermission in a Super Bowl with a call to "make space for women."

The ad featured NASA astronaut Nicole Stott and the company promised to donate up to $500,000 to the nonprofit Women Who Code, which works with young women seeking careers in tech and scientific fields.

The first woman in space was Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, whose spaceflight in 1963 is still the only solo mission carried out by a woman.

Russia has sent only one woman to the International Space Station since expeditions began in 2000 — Yelena Serova, whose mission launched in 2014.

Both Tereshkova and Serova are now lawmakers in the Russian parliament, where they represent the ruling United Russia party.

Unlike Koch, whose stay was extended, Parmitano and Skvortsov were rounding off regular half-year missions.

Parmitano handed over command of the space station to Roscosmos's Oleg Skripochka on Tuesday.

The 43-year-old Italian posted regular shots of the Earth while aboard, highlighting the plight of the Amazon rainforest and describing the Alps as "like a spinal column, never bending to time."

Four male cosmonauts have spent a year or longer in space as part of a single mission, with Russian Valery Polyakov's 437 days the overall record.

Scott Kelly holds the record for a NASA astronaut, posting 340 days at the International Space Station before he returned home in 2016.

© Agence France-Presse

Categories / Science, Technology

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...