UPDATE: NASA astronaut Christina Koch landed on Thursday, Feb. 6. Koch returned to Earth after logging 328 days in space, the longest spaceflight in history by a woman.
NASA astronaut Christina Koch is helped out of the Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft just minutes after she, Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov, and ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, landed their Soyuz MS-13 capsule in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Thursday, Feb. 6. Koch returned to Earth after logging 328 days in space as a member of Expeditions 59-60-61 on the International Space Station. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Koch arrived at the orbiting laboratory in March 2019 and remained in space for an extended duration mission to provide researchers the opportunity to observe effects of long-duration spaceflight on a woman to prepare for human missions to the Moon and Mars.
On October 18, 2019, NASA spacewalkers Koch and Jessica Meir replaced a battery charge-discharge unit with a new one during a spacewalk. (Credit: NASA TV). Expedition 61 was the first with only women.
During the 7-hour, 17-minute spacewalk, the two NASA astronauts completed the replacement of a battery charge-discharge unit (BCDU). The BCDU regulates the charge to the batteries that collect and distribute solar power to the orbiting lab’s systems.
According to NASA, the astronauts were also able to accomplish the installation of a stanchion on the Columbus module for support of a new external ESA (European Space Agency) payload platform called Bartolomeo scheduled for launch to the station in 2020.
Other history-making facts
Source: NASA Astronauts Wrap Up Historic All-Woman Spacewalk
Watch it all again on YouTube
