Longest spaceflight
Space Astronaut craves salsa, surf after ‘11 mos aloft’
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla, Jan 29, (AP): After nearly 11 months in orbit, the astronaut holding the record for the longest spaceflight by a woman can’t wait to dig into some salsa and chips, and swim and surf in the Gulf of Mexico.
NASA astronaut Christina Koch told The Associated Press on Tuesday – her 319th consecutive day in space – that taking part in the first all-female spacewalk was the highlight of her mission. She’s been living on the International Space Station since March and returns to Earth on Feb 6, landing in Kazakhstan with two colleagues aboard a Russian capsule.
Koch said she and fellow NASA astronaut Jessica Meir appreciated that the Oct 18 spacewalk “could serve as an inspiration for future space explorers.”
“We both drew a lot of inspiration from seeing people that were reflections of ourselves as we were growing up and developing our dreams to become astronauts,” Koch said from the space station. “So to recognize that maybe we could pay that forward and serve the same for those that are up and coming was just such a highlight.” Koch’s astronaut class of 2013 was split equally between women and men, but NASA’s astronaut corps as a whole is male dominated. Right now, four men and two women are living at the space station.
“Diversity is important, and I think it is something worth fighting for,” said Koch, an electrical engineer who also has a physics degree.
Trailing
Koch’s 328-day mission will be the second-longest by an American, trailing Scott Kelly’s flight by 12 days. She’s already set a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman.
She took time out for a pair of news interviews Tuesday, the 34th anniversary of the space shuttle Challenger accident that claimed all seven lives on board.
She said she loves her work – she conducted six spacewalks and tended to science experiments – but she also misses her friends and family.
“If they could visit here, I would continue staying for a very long time,” said Koch, a first-time space flier. “For their sake, I think that it’s probably time to head home.”
Her biggest surprise is how easily and quickly she adapted both mentally and physically to weightlessness.
“I don’t even really realize that I’m floating any more,” she said.
Why do chips and salsa top her most-missed food list? Crunchy food like chips are banned on the space station because the crumbs could float away and clog equipment. “I haven’t had chips in about 10-1/2 months,” she explained, “but I have had a fresh apple” thanks to regular cargo deliveries.
Another thing she misses: the ability to put things down and not have them float away.
She’s gotten used to using Velcro and tape to make things stay put, “so I hope that when I go back to Earth, I don’t accidentally drop things, especially when I’m handing them to people.”
Kelly, whose mission spanned 2015 and 2016, has given her advance notice of what to expect.
“It’s a great reminder to keep mentoring,” Koch said. When her record is broken, “I hope to mentor that person just as I’ve been mentored.”
Koch said it was crucial staying connected to loved ones through phone calls and video conferences. She watched as her nieces and nephews opened their Christmas presents. But it’s also special celebrating holidays in space, she noted, which “kind of takes any sting off of missing your family.”
Koch grew up in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and now lives near the Gulf of Mexico in Galveston, Texas, with her husband, Bob. She said she can’t wait for their next wedding anniversary, Christmas at home and his birthday.
Celebrate
Her 41st birthday is Wednesday. How does she plan to celebrate?
Playing Scrabble with her US, Italian and Russian crew mates, as challenging as that might be in weightlessness. She packed a travel version of the game and has been too busy to enjoy it.
Koch has worked in the space science instrument development and remote scientific field engineering fields. During her time working as an electrical engineer at NASA GSFC’s Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics, she contributed to scientific instruments on several NASA missions that studied astrophysics and cosmology. During this time, she also served as Adjunct Faculty at Montgomery College in Maryland and led a Physics Laboratory course.
Koch signals her success in starting a fire during wilderness survival training in 2013
Koch worked as a Research Associate in the United States Antarctic Program from 2004 to 2007, spending three-and-a-half years traveling the Arctic and Antarctic regions. She completed a winter-over season at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station where she experienced minus-111 degree temperatures. She completed an additional season at Palmer Station. While in Antarctica, Koch served as a member of the Firefighting Teams and Ocean/Glacier Search and Rescue Teams. She has described her time in the South Pole as challenging mentally and physically: “[This] means going months without seeing the sun, with the same crew, and without shipments of mail or fresh food. The isolation, absence of family and friends, and lack of new sensory inputs are all conditions that you must find a strategy to thrive within.
From 2007 to 2009, Koch worked as an Electrical Engineer in the Space Department of the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University focusing on space science instrument development. She contributed to instruments studying radiation particles for NASA missions, including the Juno and Van Allen Probes. The following year, Koch completed tours of Palmer Station in Antarctica and multiple winter seasons at Summit Station in Greenland. In 2012, she worked at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in two capacities: first as a Field Engineer at NOAA’s Global Monitoring Division Baseline Observatory in Barrow Alaska, and then as Station Chief of the American Samoa Observatory.