It took my breath away as it came into focus. My first glimpse of coastal North Carolina from space. It’s a special thing to see from above the place where you grew up--the ocean that first inspired my fascination with things that make me feel small & planted the seed to explore. pic.twitter.com/OZoqiOVtRR — Christina H Koch (@Astro_Christina) April 22, 2019

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- "It took my breath away." Those are the words of a North Carolina native who got to see the Outer Banks from space.NC State graduate and NASA astronaut Christina Koch Tweeted a picture of North Carolina's barrier islands taken from the International Space Station.Koch is on a mission at the space station which will go down in the record books . She will not return to Earth until Feb. 2020, spending 328 days in space--the longest single spaceflight ever by a woman. The longest single spaceflight by any NASA astronaut is 340 days--set by Scott Kelly in 2015-2016.