US astronaut Christina Koch

US astronaut Christina Koch

Part of: GS Prelims and GS III- Science & Technology

In News

• US astronaut Christina Koch set the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman when she reached, and crossed, 289 days in her current mission at the International Space Station (ISS).
• Having reached the ISS in March this year, she is expected to spend a total of 328 days on board before returning to Earth in February 2020.
•  In October 2019, she was part of the first all-female spacewalk, together with Jessica Meir

Did you Know?

• Gennady Padalka of Russia holds the record longest cumulative time spent in space by any astronaut, male or female, accumulating the 878 days (about 2½ years) across five spaceflights between 1998 and 2015.
• The International Space Station (ISS) is a space station (habitable artificial satellite) in low Earth orbit. 
• The ISS programme is a joint project between five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada). The ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements