The astronaut completed three all-female spacewalks and set a record for time in space, but you should remember her for much more.
How many astronauts can you name without consulting Google or Wikipedia?
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are easy. They were the first men on the moon. You should probably also remember their Command Module pilot, Michael Collins. But he wasn’t one of the first on the moon, so he comes less easily to mind.
Christina Koch, who returned to Earth on Thursday, might be another name you’ll come to remember. She and Jessica Meir executed the first all-woman spacewalk. Although Ms. Koch performed six spacewalks during her mission, set a duration record for time in space and contributed enormously to space science, that October spacewalk will be what gets her into history books.
In the same way, Sally Ride is known for being the first American woman in space, but not for her work in the development of the space shuttle’s robotic arm. In all of these cases, being first was a matter of timing, not something that was under the direct control of the astronauts credited for their trailblazing.
It’s not as if there was a race to be on the first all-female spacewalk. In fact, the opposite might be said to be true.
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The presence of Ms. Koch and Dr. Meir on that spacewalk was practically an accident. NASA has 48 active-duty astronauts, of which 16 are women. The first female spacewalk was supposed to be Anne McClain and Ms. Koch last March. But only one suit was available that fit the women, so they had to restaff the spacewalk with a male astronaut.
If the all-female spacewalk had occurred then, Ms. McClain, not Ms. Koch, would have been its commander. Ms. Koch would not be the one who spoke to the president. And this essay might instead be about Ms. McClain, who would have been first out of the airlock.
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With Ms. Koch’s return to Earth, she now holds another distinction: the longest stay by a female astronaut in space, 328 days. (Currently, the American record-holder for the longest single stay is Scott Kelly, with 342 days in space, and the record-holder for cumulative time is Peggy Whitson with 665 days spread over three flights.) Ms. Koch volunteered for this mission as part of a long-duration experiment, but the assignment was not in her direct control.
THE NEW YORK TIMES