US astronaut Christina Koch returns to Earth after record-breaking spaceflight

An American astronaut safely returned to Earth today after breaking the record for the longest spaceflight by a woman.

Nasa scientist Christina Koch spent 328 days on the International Space Station before touching down on the steppes of Kazakhstan at 9.12am GMT.

The previous female record of 289 days was set by another American, Peggy Whitson, last year.

Ms Koch’s stay in orbit was only 12 days short of the all-time US record set by Scott Kelly in 2016. She completed 5,248 orbits and travelled 139 million miles, also joining the first all-woman spacewalk with fellow US astronaut Jessica Meir in October last year. She returned to earth on a Russian Soyuz capsule with two other crew members, Italian European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Skvortsov.

In a live interview from the ISS earlier this week, she said: “For me, it’s all about the honour I feel to follow in the footsteps of my heroes.”

Koch launched to the ISS on March 14 last year and was due to have stayed there for the standard six months but her mission was extended in April 2019.