Astronaut Christina Koch has made history by conducting the longest space flight ever by a woman.

The Nasa astronaut has now spent 289 consecutive days in space, breaking the record that was set by Peggy Whitson, who came back to Earth after 288 days.

During that unprecedentedly long journey, Koch has already set another record. She and fellow astronaut Jessica Meir conducted the first ever all-female spacewalk from the International Space Station in October, in another breakthrough that was watched around the world.

By the time she returns, Koch is expected to have taken part in six spacewalks, as well as conducting vital research while on board the space station.

But she is not set to come down for some time yet. Her return is scheduled for February 2020, meaning that she will have been on board the ISS for just 12 days fewer than the US record of 340 days that her colleague Scott Kelly was in space.

Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Mystic Mountain, a pillar of gas and dust standing at three-light-years tall, bursting with jets of gas from fledgling stars buried within, was captured by Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope in February 2010 Nasa/ESA/STScI Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures The first ever selfie taken on an alien planet, captured by Nasa's Curiosity Rover in the early days of its mission to explore Mars in 2012 Nasa/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Death of a star: This image from Nasa's Chandra X-ray telescope shows the supernova of Tycho, a star in our Milky Way galaxy Nasa Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Arrokoth, the most distant object ever explored, pictured here on 1 January 2019 by a camera on Nasa's New Horizons spaceraft at a distance of 4.1 billion miles from Earth Getty Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures An image of the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy seen in infrared light by the Herschel Space Observatory in January 2012. Regions of space such as this are where new stars are born from a mixture of elements and cosmic dust Nasa Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures The first ever image of a black hole, captured by the Event Horizon telescope, as part of a global collaboration involving Nasa, and released on 10 April 2019. The image reveals the black hole at the centre of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the nearby Virgo galaxy cluster. This black hole resides about 54 million light-years from Earth Getty Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Pluto, as pictured by Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft as it flew over the dwarf planet for the first time ever in July 2015 Nasa/APL/SwRI Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures A coronal mass ejection as seen by the Chandra Observatory in 2019. This is the first time that Chandra has detected this phenomenon from a star other than the Sun Nasa Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Dark, narrow, 100 meter-long streaks running downhill on the surface Mars were believed to be evidence of contemporary flowing water. It has since been suggested that they may instead be formed by flowing sand Nasa/JPL/University of Arizona Nasa's groundbreaking decade of space exploration: In pictures Morning Aurora: Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the green lights of the aurora from the International Space Station in October 2015 Nasa/Scott Kelly

Whitson is still the holder of the record for the longest time spent in space over a series of missions, having spent nearly 666 days away from Earth over the course of five flights. The all-time record for one space flight is 438 days and was set by cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov in 1995.

Speaking as 28 December arrived and her record was set, Koch said that she hoped her achievements would be inspiring to others who hoped to follow her. And she said that she hopes her record is broken as soon as possible again, as humanity looks to push more boundaries further in space.

“Do what scares you. Everyone should think about what intrigues them and what draws them in,” she said during a live interview with CNN from the space station.