Zero Genie

Astronaut Christina Koch spent a record 11 months in space, the longest spaceflight of any woman. She returned to Earth in February and is just completing her NASA-mandated readjustment period. What’s life like when you leave a space station, only to be confined in your own home under lockdown?

Guests

Christina Koch, NASA astronaut and former flight engineer on the International Space Station. She set the record for longest single spaceflight by a woman: 328 days. She and Jessica Meir performed the first all-female spacewalk. Koch has performed a total of six spacewalks. (@Astro_Christina)

Listen: Christina Koch’s Space Playlist

From The Reading List

The Washington Post: “‘Become experts on the thing that is threatening you’: Advice from astronauts on isolation on Earth” — “Before living for months in space, Christina Koch lived at the South Pole and Chris Hadfield lived at the bottom of the ocean, in a laboratory just off the coast of Florida.”

Vanity Fair: “Astronaut Jessica Meir Returns Home to a ‘Completely Different Planet’” — “On September 25, 2019, as dusk settled over the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, along with two fellow crewmates, rocketed off to the International Space Station. On April 17, Meir returned—if not exactly to the world she left behind. Reentry has its usual set of potential discomforts. Some have described the so-called “soft landing” of the capsule as having the sudden jolt of a car accident; motion sickness may occur as the body adapts to gravity. But rejoining life on Earth during a pandemic is another matter entirely.”

BBC: “Coronavirus: Space crew return to very different earth” — “No strangers to isolation, Russian Oleg Skrypochka and Jessica Meir from the US left Earth in September 2019, well before Covid-19 emerged. Another American, Andrew Morgan, has been on the ISS since July 2019. The coronavirus pandemic has changed the usual routine for returning space crews.”

Smithsonian Magazine: “Christina Koch Returns to Earth After Breaking Spaceflight Record” — “Aboard the International Space Station, astronaut Christina Koch could watch the sun rise and set on Earth 16 times per day on all 328 days of her mission. Now, having completed the longest spaceflight ever achieved by a woman, Koch has returned to Earth where she can view the sunrise in the morning and sunset in the evening from the comfort of her home in Galveston, Texas.”

New York Times: “NASA Astronauts Complete the First All-Female Spacewalk” — “NASA reached a milestone on Friday when two Americans, tasked with replacing a power controller, ventured out of the International Space Station: the astronauts, Christina Koch and Jessica Meir, became the first to take part in an all-female spacewalk.”

Spotify’s ‘For The Record’: “NASA Astronaut Christina Koch Shares How Music and Podcasts Made Groundbreaking Trip Extra-Stellar” — “NASA astronaut Christina Koch may have spent 328 consecutive days floating in space (the longest-ever single spaceflight for a woman), but her love for all things audio kept her firmly grounded throughout the journey.”