Koch ‘overwhelmed’ at finishing longest space flight by a woman

Nasa astronaut Christina Koch has completed the longest-ever single space flight by a woman.

The 41-year-old American, who has spent nearly 11 months in orbit, landed safely yesterday in Kazakhstan along with two of her International Space Station (ISS) crewmates.

The Soyuz capsule carrying Koch, along with station commander Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and the Russian space agency Roscosmos’ Alexander Skvortsov, touched down south-east of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, at 3:12pm (9:12am GMT).

Ms Koch finished a 328-day mission on her first flight into space, giving researchers the opportunity to observe the effects of long-duration spaceflight on a woman.

The study is important since Nasa plans to return to the Moon under the Artemis programme and prepare for the human exploration of Mars. Her stay was just 12 days short of the all-time US record set by Scott Kelly, who was on the ISS from 2015 to 2016.

Ms Koch smiled and gave a thumbs-up as support crew helped her get out of the capsule and placed her in a chair for a post-flight check-up alongside her colleagues.

“I’m so overwhelmed and happy right now,” she said as she sat outside the capsule, shortly after it touched down in the snow.

Ms Koch had said on Tuesday: “For me, it’s all about the honour I feel to follow in the footsteps of my heroes.”

Russian space officials said the crew were in good shape.

During her mission, Ms Koch completed 5,248 orbits of the Earth and travelled 139 million miles – the equivalent of 291 round trips to the Moon from Earth.

Ms Koch, who grew up in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and now lives in Galveston, Texas, with her husband Bob, said last month that taking part in the first all-female spacewalk was the highlight of her mission.

She said she and fellow Nasa astronaut Jessica Meir appreciated the 18 October spacewalk “could serve as an inspiration for future space explorers”. The exercise was the first all-female spacewalk. Mr Parmitano and Mr Skvortsov spent 201 days in space.

After preliminary medical evaluations, the crew will be flown by Russian helicopters to the city of Karaganda in Kazakhstan.

Ms Koch and Mr Parmitano will then board a Nasa plane bound for Cologne in Germany.

Mr Parmitano will be greeted by European space officials in the German city before Ms Koch proceeds home to Houston.

Mr Skvortsov will be flown to the Star City Cosmonaut Training Centre outside Moscow.