NASA announces record-setting spaceflight mission by woman astronaut
18 April 2019 10:25 AM IST
The extended missions are aimed at gathering additional data on the effects of long-duration human spaceflight.
SpaceX and Boeing Co are the two main contractors selected under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's commercial crew program to send US astronauts to space as soon as 2019, using their Dragon and Starliner spacecraft respectively.
NASA has announced its new schedule and new crew assignments for the coming months. One of the schedules requires NASA astronaut Christina Koch to remain in orbit until February 2020 and set a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman.
Koch will be joined by NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov on July 20, the official NASA blog states. While Parmitano and Skvortsov will return in February 2020 with Koch, Morgan will remain onboard the ISS for his extended stay.
The extended missions are aimed at gathering additional data on the effects of long-duration human spaceflight beyond the standard six-month station expedition.
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