The first space mission of NASA astronaut Christina Koch is about to break the record of the ISS

NASA announced today which astronauts would be coming to the International Space Station and would be returning by the end of the year. Thanks to the new calendar, an astronaut will now break a record in orbit. Due to this new arrangement, NASA astronaut Christina Koch – who is already in space – will soon hold the title of the longest space flight of a woman, beating the last holder, the former astronaut of NASA , Peggy Whitson.

Koch joined the ISS on March 14 with NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin. But instead of staying six months, as do most NASA astronauts, Koch should stay on the station until February 2020. This means that she will spend 328 days, almost a full year, in orbit, which is one of the longest consecutive stay in the space of an NASA astronaut. It will simply fail to break the record of 340 consecutive days of Scott Kelly in orbit, the all-time record for a NASA astronaut. But she will beat Whitson's time of 288 consecutive days in space.

This extended stay could help NASA better understand the effects of long-term spaceflight on the human body. While Kelly was in space for his one year mission, he gave samples of his own blood and did other health tests so that NASA could see how his body is changing. in orbit. The space agency then compared Kelly's health data to that of his twin brother, former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, who stayed on Earth all year. The experiment revealed some surprising ways that space disrupts the body, such as damaging the DNA and affecting cognition. NASA noted that Koch's flight would also add to this growing field of research.

In addition to announcing Koch's long trip, NASA has also specified the date of departure for some of the crew this summer as well as those who will arrive later this year. After the departure of three crew members in June, a new set of three is scheduled for the launch of the ISS in July, followed by three more in September. This means that nine people will be briefly on the station before three people leave in early October. A member of the crew who arrived in September is NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, who is also scheduled to remain on a long-term mission similar to Koch's. She will leave in the spring of 2020.

Photo: NASA

The new crew schedules also mean that two women – Koch and Meir – will be on the same station once again after the departure of ISS team member Anne McClain in June. This suggests the possibility of an exit in the space reserved for women in the year to come. NASA had planned to make the first female spacewalk in history last month with Koch and McClain, but McClain finally decided to withdraw from the tour because of size problems and logistics. There is still work to be done outside the station. It is possible that Koch and Meir are assigned to an exit in space. However, NASA has given no indication on such an exit in space.

Today's crew announcements also clarify ISS staffing as NASA adopts a new way of transporting astronauts to and from the station. Perhaps before the end of the year, two of NASA's commercial partners – SpaceX and Boeing – will begin flying crews to and from the International Space Station as part of the agency's Commercial Crew program. . SpaceX is expected to send its first two – person crew to the space station during a quick test flight in July, while Boeing is expected to have three by the end of the year.

However, it is not at all certain that these flights are proceeding as planned, as the commercial crew program has already experienced many delays and schedule changes. As SpaceX and Boeing continue to prepare for these flights, NASA must continue to rely on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to transport its astronauts into space. All crews announced today will fly aboard the Soyuz. So no matter what happens with the commercial crew flights, today's announcements guarantee that NASA will have at least two astronauts aboard the ISS until spring of next year.

If SpaceX and Boeing make piloting people by the end of 2019, this means that even more crews could head to the ISS this year, in addition to those announced today.