NASA astronaut Christina Koch is all set to make a record for the longest spaceflight by a woman. Christina’s mission on the International Space station (ISS) has been extended to 11 months, the US Space agency said on Wednesday.
The 40-year-old astronaut, who arrived on the space station on March 14, will now be on the space station till February 2020. This will break the 288-days record set by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson in 2016-2017.
Expressing her happiness to be a part of the mission Christina said, “It feels awesome”.
One month down. Ten to go. Today the possibility has become reality: My mission is planned to be extended through a third Expedition onboard @Space_Station! Privileged to contribute my best every single day of it. pic.twitter.com/b9RhhNHZzt
— Christina H Koch (@Astro_Christina) April 17, 2019
“The perspective that you gain up here looking down on earth, and seeing a world without borders representing all of humanity, up here in a global effort to explore and to do science on the frontiers. That actually benefits the earth that we’re looking down on,” she was quoted as saying in an ABC News report.
.@Astro_Christina Koch, currently living and working on @Space_Station, spoke in a media interview about her new extended mission, what she has been working on and other details about her time on the orbiting laboratory. Watch: https://t.co/elQufzDSr3 pic.twitter.com/BRYIntyQaz
— NASA (@NASA) April 17, 2019
According to NASA, this extended mission is an attempt to study the effects of the long-duration spaceflight on the human body.
“Such research is essential to support future deep space exploration missions to the Moon and Mars,” said the U.S Space Agency.
Last month, NASA had cancelled an all-women spacewalk citing lack of spacesuit, with Christina and another American astronaut Anne McClain. Later Anne was replaced by a male colleague, astronaut Nick Hague.
