Astronaut Christina Koch returns from her record-setting 328-day trip in space

Christina Koch

In October, NASA astronaut Christina Koch made history as a participant in the world’s first all-female spacewalk with fellow astronaut Jessica Meir. On Thursday morning, Koch made history again when a Soyuz spacecraft carrying her and two other astronauts touched down near Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, ending Koch’s record-breaking 328 consecutive days in space, the longest single spaceflight by a woman.

Koch spent that flight conducting experiments on the International Space Station as it orbited the Earth. CNN reports that during her almost 47-week journey in space, Koch completed six spacewalks, spending a total of 42 hours and 15 minutes outside of the space station.

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The original mission was meant to keep Koch in space for six months, but she extended her time and in so doing put herself in the history books, while giving scientists more data on how weightlessness affects the human body over time. CBS This Morning reported that Koch said she had been in space so long that she had forgotten that she was floating. Koch’s journey broke the record set a few years ago by NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who spent 288 days on a single trip. Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov holds the record for any person, 438 consecutive days in space, a feat he accomplished between January 1994 and March 1995. 

You can watch astronauts Christina Koch and Luca Parmitano and cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov returning home from space below.