US Astronaut sets new female spaceflight record

This appeared in The Millennial Source

On December 28, US astronaut Christina Koch set a new record for the longest continuous spaceflight by a woman. Koch broke the old record of 288 days with more than two months left of her mission.

Her lengthy stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS) provides NASA with valuable data about the effects of prolonged spaceflight — information the space agency says is vital in supporting future missions to the Moon and Mars.

Longest spaceflight by a woman

Christina Koch broke the record on what was her 289th day at the ISS. The 40-year-old first arrived at the space station on March 14.

She will spend nearly 11 months onboard after NASA announced in April that it was extending her mission until February 2020.

Retired astronaut Peggy Whitson set the previous record for the longest spaceflight by a woman in 2017.

The US record for longest space flight is 340 days set by Scott Kelly in 2015–2016.

The world record was set in the 1990s by a Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, who spent 15 months aboard the Mir space station.