NASA astronaut Christina Koch broke the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman and conducted the first all-female spacewalk with fellow NASA astronaut Jessica Meir after her first trip to the International Space Station.
“We caught each other’s eye and we knew that we were really honored with this opportunity to inspire so many, and just hearing our voices talk to Mission Control, knowing two female voices had never been on the loops, solving those problems together outside — it was a really special feeling,” Koch said of that first spacewalk, on October 18.
On Tuesday, Koch returned to earth along with European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov. The Soyuz spacecraft carrying the astronauts landed near Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan at 4:12 a.m. ET.
Koch completed six spacewalks during her mission, it included another two with Meir and spent 42 hours and 15 minutes outside of the station. She also dedicated much of her time to a variety of experiments and investigations.
The space station which acts as an orbiting laboratory can be used to test how different aspects of everyday human life on Earth react to the shortage of gravity.
Koch documented her space journey on social media and shared a photo of some of her fellow crew members on Instagram. “I’m going to miss this bunch. Thank you, space family. #Expedition61,” she captioned the zero-gravity friend photo.
“That was the day that I have seared in my memory,” she said, according to NASA. “Visions from when I first arrived here. … I’m very privileged to have that as one of my favorite memories.”
Koch recalled her first time conducting a spacewalk back in March. She said it was gratifying: “At that moment, I just felt like everything I had ever worked for, everything I had ever loved, everything I had ever wanted to contribute to my entire life was just culminating in that moment.”
She wondered how her body and mind adapted to her environment, so much so that she had “actually forgotten that [she] was floating.”
“It’s been a huge surprise to see that life up here can actually become normal because of what our bodies can adapt to,” Koch said.
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