Astronaut Christina Koch sets mark for longest single space flight by a woman

Koch, an electrical engineer who graduated from North Carolina State University, told CNN that her record was "a wonderful thing for science."

“We see another aspect of how the human body is affected by microgravity for the long term, and that’s really important for our future spaceflight plan going forward to the moon and to Mars,” Koch told the network.

Koch has made four spacewalks during her time in space, joining fellow astronaut Jessica Meir for history's first all-female spacewalk in October, CBS News reported. Koch plans to team with Meir for two more spacewalks in January, the network reported.

According to NASA's schedule, Koch will remain at the station until February 2020, CNN reported. That will put her a few days shy of NASA's all-time single space flight, set by Scott Kelly in 2016.

The all-time single flight record is 438 days, set in 1995 by cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, CBS News reported.