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Friday, March 29, 2024

NASA astronaut Koch returns to Earth, makes history

Duration: 01:47s 0 shares 2 views

NASA astronaut Koch returns to Earth, makes history
NASA astronaut Koch returns to Earth, makes history

A capsule carrying a crew of three from the International Space Station, including record-setting United States astronaut Christina Koch, landed in Kazakhstan on Thursday.

Chris Dignam has more.

(SOUND BITE) (English) NASA TV REPORTER, SAYING: "Christina Koch, your record-holder.

She is out, thumbs up and a huge smile." After 328 days away from Earth, U.S. astronaut Christina Koch landed in Kazakhstan on Thursday, breaking the record for the longest stay in space by a woman.

(SOUND BITE) (English) NASA TV REPORTER, SAYING: "Christina, welcome home." Koch touched down on the frozen Kazakh desert with European astronaut Luca Parmitano from Italy and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov -- all of them eager to enjoy a meal that doesn't come in a silver pouch.

(SOUND BITE) (English) NASA TV REPORTER, SAYING: "There are enough chips... salsa on the NASA plane heading home to accommodate several Mexican restaurants back in Houston, I will tell you.

No shortage of her favorite delicacy on the way home." NASA said Koch's lengthy mission will provide researchers with much-needed data on how weightlessness and space radiation affect the female body on long spaceflights.

Wrapped in blankets, she was carried into a medical tent to restore her balance in gravity.

Her data will be studied in the coming months, could prove useful for the U.S. space agency's aim of building a permanent space station on the moon within the next decade.

On the International Space Station, Koch achieved another gender milestone, leading the first all-female spacewalk in October.

(SOUND BITE) (English) NASA TV REPORTER, SAYING: "Koch letting us know that the status indicator was wrong and they have been able to pull it out." NASA's first attempt at that spacewalk was called off due to a lack of enough spacesuits in the right size, igniting a gender-equality debate in the space community.

Astronauts on the space station, whose 20th anniversary in orbit comes later this year, have made 227 maintenance spacewalks.

According to NASA, nearly two dozen of them included women astronauts.

(SOUND BITE) (English) U.S. ASTRONAUT CHRISTINA KOCH, SAYING: "Alright, excellent!

Nice work."

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