Christina Koch, an astronaut for NASA, arrive on the International Space Station on March 14 earlier this year.
And thanks to a slew of schedule changes by the US space agency, she is all to become the record holder for the longest space flight by a woman ever.
Christina Koch conducting botany research aboard the International Space Station - Images courtesy: NASA
Koch has so far already conducted one spacewalk, which was supposed to be an all-female spacewalk until a shortage with the spacesuits cropped up. And now, she'll remain in orbit until February 2020. That'll put her in space for just shy of the record for the longest space stay ever - 340 days by Scott Kelly.
However, she will massively eclipse the longest space flight by a woman, held by Peggy Whitson with 288 days under her belt.
As part of the schedule changes two new astronauts, Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir, will join Koch on the ISS later this year, their first space flights ever. Morgan will also stay at the ISS longer than originally planned, getting there in July and remaining there until mid-2020.
Koch waits for pizza
By extending the space flights of Koch and Morgan, NASA will be able to gather more data on the changes to human cognitive and bodily functions. They recently completed a major study on Scott Kelly, comparing data gathered from him with identical tests conducted on his twin brother Mark Kelly. And though they gained a wealth of data, they're hoping to gain more from other astronauts in order to refine their inferences
And the sooner they can complete those studies, the sooner they can implement all necessary precautions needed when sending astronauts to Mars and beyond in future.