Washington: NASA astronaut Christina Koch breaks the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman on December 28.
The previous holder was the veteran astronaut Peggy Whitson who stayed on the ISS for a record 288 days in 2016-2017.
Koch became a record-breaker earlier this year when she was a member of the first all-female spacewalk team.
The world's first female spacewalking team making history high above Earth, floating out of the International Space Station to fix a broken part of the power network.
As NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir emerged one by one, it marked the first time in a half-century of spacewalking that a woman floated out without a male crewmate.
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It’s a new day. It’s a new dawn.
— NASA (@NASA) December 28, 2019 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
Today @Astro_Christina sets a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, eclipsing the record of 288 days set by @AstroPeggy. #CongratsChristina on reaching new heights! https://t.co/tJSKp9JwbB pic.twitter.com/ZIEPIsZ5SV
">It’s a new day. It’s a new dawn.
— NASA (@NASA) December 28, 2019
Today @Astro_Christina sets a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, eclipsing the record of 288 days set by @AstroPeggy. #CongratsChristina on reaching new heights! https://t.co/tJSKp9JwbB pic.twitter.com/ZIEPIsZ5SVIt’s a new day. It’s a new dawn.
— NASA (@NASA) December 28, 2019
Today @Astro_Christina sets a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, eclipsing the record of 288 days set by @AstroPeggy. #CongratsChristina on reaching new heights! https://t.co/tJSKp9JwbB pic.twitter.com/ZIEPIsZ5SV
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NASA originally wanted to conduct an all-female spacewalk last spring but did not have enough medium-size suits ready to go.
Koch helped assemble an extra medium suit over the summer.
Speaking before her trip to the ISS in March Koch said she felt honoured to be part of the ISS expedition 59-60.
Her colleague named Russian Cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and Nasa's Nick Hague were travelling on the Russian Soyuz-FG rocket which failed shortly into an October 11, 2018 flight, sending their emergency capsule into a sharp fall back to earth.
The two men landed on the steppe in Kazakhstan safely in the accident, the first of its kind for Russia's manned program in over three decades.
An investigation found that the failed rocket launch was caused by a sensor that was damaged during assembly.
Koch arrived at the ISS on March 15, 2019.
Watch: NASA: all-female spacewalk set to take place this week
During their historic spacewalk to replace a broken part of the International Space Station's power grid, Meir and Koch received a congratulatory phone call from US President Donald Trump
The spacewalk marked the first time in a half-century of spacewalking that men weren't part of the action. Meir insisted they were just doing their job after years of training.
'"This historic event ... truly historic," Trump told the astronaut spacewalkers. "What you do is incredible. You're very brave people", he said.
In 2017 Trump also called Peggy Whitson to congratulate her on another achievement for setting the record of most time spent in space.
"Today, Commander Whitson, you have broken the record for the most total time spent in space by an American astronaut — 534 days and counting. That's an incredible record to break and on behalf of our nation and, frankly, on behalf of the world I'd like to congratulate you. That is something."
Whitson who retired in 2018 spent more time off the planet than any other American: 665 days over three space station missions. She's also the world's most experienced female spacewalker with 10 under her spacesuit belt.
Whitson was the first woman to command the International Space Station, holding the position twice, and the oldest woman ever to fly in space. She was also the only woman to have served as chief of NASA's male-dominated astronaut corps.
Koch will break Whitson's 288-day record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman on December 28, 2019.
She will remain on board for about 11 months until February - approaching but not quite breaking Scott Kelly's 340-day U.S. record.
Russia still holds the world's space endurance record. A Russian cosmonaut-physician spent nearly 15 months on a single mission aboard the former Mir space station in the mid-1990s.
Read Also: NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Jessica Meir become first women to perform spacewalk
