Longest spaceflight by a woman ends as spacecraft lands safely

KAZAKHSTAN — NASA astronaut Christina Koch and expedition members from the European and Russian space agencies have safely landed in Kazakhstan, NASA announced on its livestream of the landing, ending the longest single spaceflight mission taken by a woman.

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Koch spent 329 days in space, beating the previous record of 288 days by Peggy Whitson.

During that time, she orbited the Earth 5,248 times and conducted six spacewalks, spending around 45 minutes outside the International Space Station.

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After so long spent in orbit, Koch said in a blog post on the NASA site that there were several things she would need to readjust to, like sleeping in a bed rather than a floating bag, doing laundry, choosing food and taking a real shower.

NASA also said that the prolonged mission would help scientists study the effects of long stretches spent in space.