Cape Canaveral, Florida – The astronaut of the POT who has just imposed a new mark of stay in space, said Wednesday that except for muscle aches and balance problems, he has been re-adapting well to gravity after having spent almost 11 months in orbit.
Christina Koch gave a press conference to reporters in Houston six days after returning to Earth from the International Space Station. His 328-day mission, which ended on Thursday of last week, has been the longest for a woman.
Koch said he had a neck ailment for almost a day. “I felt like a two week old baby, it was hard for me to hold my own head”, he claimed.
She considers herself fortunate that her feet didn’t hurt or her skin burned, as happened four years ago to NASA champion in space permanence, Scott Kelly, whose mission lasted 340 days.
Koch returned home to Galveston, Texas, where a kitchen full of chips and salsa was waiting for her, a bite she longed for in orbit, as well as visiting the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Koch went to the beach with her husband, Bob, and their dog, called LBD by Little Brown Dog, just three days after she landed in Kazakhstan.
LBD was excited to see her and vice versa.
“I am uncertain to say who was more excited to see the other”said Koch.
The reunion was recorded. “It is a symbol of returning with people and places that one loves, seeing your favorite animal,” he said.
Koch, 41, is an electrical engineer and also has a career in physics. Last March he traveled to the space station and in October he participated in the first spacewalk for women only. Three astronauts continue in orbit, including their spacewalk companion, Jessica Meir, also from NASA.
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