Breaking The Glass Atmosphere

By Gabriela Umana

American engineer and astronaut Christina Koch returned to Earth on Feb. 6, 2020 after having been in space for 328 days, breaking the record for longest single spaceflight by a female. This comes just months after she and fellow astronaut Jessica Mier did the world’s first all-female spacewalk. She ranks second in longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut and seventh in American space travelers with the most time in space.

Koch graduated from North Carolina State University with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Physics and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering. In 2013, she became one of four women in the 21st NASA astronaut class, the class with the highest percentage of women. She completed her astronaut training in 2015 and went on her first spaceflight in 2018.

NASA’s Artemis program has a goal of sending the next man and the first woman to the moon by 2024, a deadline set by Vice President Mike Pence, the chairman of the U.S. national space agency. There is a lot of speculation about which of the 12 women currently in the Astronaut Corps will be chosen. "Any of us would be ready and honored to accept that mission if it were offered to us," said Koch during a news conference at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Women have come a long way in STEM fields. Just in 1973, plans to allow women to go to space were top secret. 47 years later, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstein said, “ I have a daughter who is 11 years old, and I want her to be able to see herself in the same role as the next women that go to the Moon.” Women like Koch are paving the way for future generations of females in STEM careers.