NASA's Christina Koch returned to Earth safely on Thursday after shattering the spaceflight record for female astronauts with a stay of almost 11 months aboard the International Space Station.
Koch touched down at 0912 GMT on the Kazakh steppe after 328 days in space, along with Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and Alexander Skvortsov of the Russian space agency.
[...] Koch, a 41-year-old Michigan-born engineer, on December 28 last year beat the previous record for a single spaceflight by a woman of 289 days, set by NASA veteran Peggy Whitson in 2016-17.
[...] Koch also made history as one half of the first-ever all-woman spacewalk along with NASA counterpart Jessica Meir—her classmate from NASA training—in October last year.
[...] She will now head to NASA headquarters in Houston, via the Kazakh city of Karaganda and Cologne in Germany, where she will undergo medical testing.
Koch's medical data will be especially valuable to NASA scientists as the agency draws up plans for a long-duration manned mission to Mars.
[...] The first woman in space was Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova whose spaceflight in 1963 is still the only solo mission carried out by a woman.
Russia has sent only one woman to the ISS since expeditions began in 2000—Yelena Serova whose mission launched in 2014.
Both Tereshkova and Serova are now lawmakers in the Russian parliament, where they represent the ruling United Russia party.
[...] Four male cosmonauts have spent a year or longer in space as part of a single mission with Russian Valery Polyakov's 437 days the overall record.
[...] Scott Kelly holds the record for a NASA astronaut, posting 340 days at the ISS before he returned home in 2016.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 09 2020, @08:48PM (6 children)
This has to dredge up at least a couple of misogynistic posts.
Captain Marvel's great grandma will probably cause these baby men's diapers to fill up.
I heard Greta cheered Christina on as being a hero for women everywhere.
Even AOC got in on it! She says this proves universal healthcare and wealth taxes are the right way to go.
Of course Trump just sulked on the toilet shitting out nonsense on Twitter.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by FatPhil on Sunday February 09 2020, @11:18PM (5 children)
Why is it important that she's a woman? Woman have been doing great things in all fields for ages now.
Yeah, all fields, including STEM - Marie Fucking Curie (her middle name's pronounced /futsking/, as the 'c' in Polish has a 'ts' sound). Apart from waste expulsion problems that were solved by competitive sailors decades ago, it should matter not what's in this astronaut's downstairs department - she's good at her job, she got the job because of that, stop focussing on her crotch.
And British TV legend Phallus Schofield has just come out as gay. Why's that important? He's good at his job. Before yesterday that was not because he wasn't gay (or so some people thought), and now it's not because he is gay. He's just a very personable TV presenter, which is what you want on that kind of telly, what he does with his dangly bits when out of the studio is *irrelevant*. Get your attention away from his crotch.
How did I do?
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 09 2020, @11:40PM
> How did I do?
There's no mod for "common sense"...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 10 2020, @12:35AM (2 children)
Because it is just a news headline and not something to get worked up over. Odd how a story "Longest astronaut in space Fred Drexxler" wouldn't have anyone batting an eye.
Why do people bother to say it was a woman? Why should anyone bother mentioning Obama was the first black president? Why should anyone mention any identifying detail other than "collection of atoms"?
The long and short of it is, why do you get upset about such news articles? Perhaps it is the same reflex that has some conservatives saying stupid shit like "they keep shoving Greta and AOC down our throats!" Ok pals :|
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday February 10 2020, @03:45PM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 10 2020, @08:10PM
If you don't care about people's identity then you shouldn't care if people mention it. Why bother saying someone's name? Not likely history will remember it, so why even include it? "Sentient being does X."
I submit we ban all identifiers such as country of origin, gender, given and nick names, professional titles, and planet of origin. Or are you only bothered by any sexual identifiers? Perhaps just a knee-jerk reaction to PC identifiers more generally?
It is ok to say first man on the moon, but if they say first woman then MUH UPPRESSHUNZ or WHY SHOULD I CARE???
I'll repeat what conservatives usually say when someone complains about something, "Don't like it? Ignore it, leave the country, reals over feelz."
Don't let the hypocrisy hitcha on the way out boomyboom.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 10 2020, @05:29PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie [wikipedia.org]
Your declaration of her middle name was just plausible enough for me to fact-check it. It's not actually true, but nicely executed, sir (or madam).
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 09 2020, @09:21PM
She used to be the woman with the record for the longest space mission by a woman, until this misogynistic Christina Koch decided to take that away from her.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 09 2020, @09:26PM
He self-identifies as a woman now, which means "she" still holds the record.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Bot on Sunday February 09 2020, @10:29PM (3 children)
Bar dello sport, foggy afternoon somewhere between Venice and Treviso. Two middle aged men and a couple prosecchi. One is scrolling his smartphone.
- Geez can't believe it
- eh?
- hear this: American woman, remained 300 days in space...
- and?
- with a man.
- hehe nowadays that doesn't mean a th...
- an Italian.
- what? what kind of cruel experiment is it? *shakes head, nods to the guy behind the counter* two more glasses, Bepi.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 4, Funny) by c0lo on Sunday February 09 2020, @10:51PM (1 child)
TFA
Ummm... she may have been too much even for an Italian? It can happen, you know [youtube.com]? (SFW)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Bot on Monday February 10 2020, @10:41AM
Durand durand wasn't italian, the furry guy played by ugo tognazzi earlier in the story likely was, and prepped barbarella exactly for this scene. The angel is an aryan metrosexual. This is science 101, guys, you cannot ignore it.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 09 2020, @11:41PM
+1 racist too
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Snotnose on Monday February 10 2020, @01:25AM (2 children)
First director to win an Oscar. First woman to run for prez. First black in space. First chick in space. First black chick in space. First time 3 chicks did a spacewalk. Longest time in space by a woman.
Every time I hear "First $group to $something" I get a severe case of Deja Moo, as in I've heard this bull before, just with different $group and $something.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday February 10 2020, @01:28AM
I'm eagerly awaiting "First person (human) to commit a crime on Mars".
General space crime may still be in play [soylentnews.org].
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Funny) by MostCynical on Monday February 10 2020, @02:22AM
First incel to get married (now only one woman won't sleep with him, rather than 'all of them')
First Republican to vote with conscience (now likely to be expelled from party)
First online article not to have clickbait headline (no one read it)
...
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex