Gender equality has reached space.

 A new record attempt by a NASA trained astronaut sheds light on a promising development: More and more women become members of the super elite club of space travelers.

One of them, Christina Koch (40), is on the way to break the record for the longest spaceflight ever completed by a woman: Launched with the Soyuz MS-12 mission on March 14th, she is only scheduled to return to Earth in February 2020 – after 328 days at the International Space Station.

Only about ten per cent of the more than 500 humans that have traveled space were women. 

Space flight programs were slow to employ female astronauts. But times have changed:  Christina’s class of NASA Astronauts 2013, for example, had 50 % women graduates. 

It will be her first spaceflight, attempting to break the current record of  Peggy Whitson, who stayed in space for 288 days.