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Alumna Astronaut Koch Returns to Earth

Christina Koch is helped out of a landing capsule
NASA astronaut Christina Koch is helped out of the Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft just minutes after she and two fellow astronauts landed their Soyuz MS-13 capsule in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020. Photo credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

In the early hours of Feb. 6, physics and engineering alumna and NASA astronaut Christina Koch touched down in Kazakhstan after a record-setting mission to the International Space Station. During her 11 months in orbit, she set the record for the longest female spaceflight and also participated in the first all-female spacewalk.

Her mission, by the numbers:

  • 328 days in space
  • 139 million miles
  • 5,248 orbits of Earth
  • 6 spacewalks (42 hours, 15 minutes total)

We followed her every step of the way via her Twitter and Instagram accounts and even spoke with her via a live satellite link on Aug. 30.

Look back on some of the highlights of her mission.

https://twitter.com/NCStateSciences/status/1167442244523253761?s=20