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Montana NASA Astronaut Sets Record For Longest Spaceflight By A Woman

A woman in zero gravity holds a plastic bag holding a red liquid attached to tubes and plastic-lined device.
NASA Johnson
/
Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
NASA astronaut Christina Koch handles media bags that help manufacture organ-like tissues using a 3-D biological printer in this Dec. 22, 2019 image.

A U.S. astronaut has set a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman. NASA officials say Christina Koch of Livingston, Montana on Saturday broke the 288-day record set by former space station commander Peggy Whitson.

The 40-year-old electrical engineer has been in space since March 15.

She is expected to spend about 11 months on board the International Space Station, falling short of astronaut Scott Kelly's 340-day U.S. record.

A Russian cosmonaut holds the world record at 15 months on a single mission aboard the former Mir space station in the mid-1990s.

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