[ti:American Astronaut Koch Returns to Earth after Record-Setting Spaceflight] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:02.08]A capsule carrying a crew of three from the International Space Station returned to Earth Thursday. [00:10.84]They came down safely in Kazakhstan. [00:15.32]One of the three was Christina Koch of the United States. [00:20.28]She spent a total of 328 days in space. [00:25.84]That broke the record for the longest continuous stay in space by a woman. [00:32.44]The old record was set by Peggy Whitson, another American astronaut. [00:39.60]During her time on the International Space Station, Koch traveled over 223 million kilometers. [00:49.48]That is how far you would travel if you went to the moon and back 291 times. [00:57.08]Koch's mission in space began March 14, 2019. [01:02.20]Since then, she has left the space station and completed "spacewalks" six times. [01:10.44]Koch made history on October 18 by working outside the space station with another female astronaut, Jessica Meir. [01:20.56]It was the first walk in space by an all-female team. [01:25.88]One reason this has not happened before is that the space station had only one spacesuit that was the right size for a woman. [01:36.40]Peggy Whitson held the record for the longest space flight by a woman until Koch broke it in December. [01:44.92]Whitson still holds the record for the longest time in space for a woman over her entire career: 589 days. [01:56.04]Scott Kelly holds the record for the longest time in space for any U.S. astronaut, 340 days. [02:05.28]The Russian space agency Roscosmos released images of the capsule landing on a snow-covered field in Kazakhstan. [02:16.32]Koch returned to Earth with Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov. [02:27.36]All three were said to be in good spirits after the landing. [02:32.00]Parmitano and Skvortsov spent 201 days in space. [02:38.56]The U.S. space agency NASA says Koch's mission will provide researchers [02:45.48]with the chance to see the effects of a long-duration spaceflight on a woman. [02:52.68]It is important information because NASA plans to return to the moon under the Artemis program. [03:00.64]The space agency is also preparing for the human exploration of the planet Mars. [03:08.40]Koch grew up in Jacksonville, North Carolina. [03:11.84]She now lives with her husband Bob near the Gulf of Mexico in Galveston, Texas. [03:19.80]She told The Associated Press last month that taking part in the first all-female spacewalk was the highlight of her space station visit. [03:30.96]I'm Jill Robbins. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM