138 InSTYLE AUGUST 2019
Astronauts and classmates
ANNE MCCLAIN and
CHRISTINA KOCH have taken
their friendship out of this worldby SHA L AY NE PULI AS
tarting a Skype interview with NASA astronauts
while they are in outer space goes something like this:
NASA: InStyle magazine, this is mission control
Houston. Please call station for a voice check.
INSTYLE: Station, this is InStyle magazine.
Do you hear me?
ANNE MCCLAIN: We hear ya just fine. Welcome aboard the
space station.At the time of our video call in April, McClain and fellow flight
engineer Christina Koch are in the midst of an overlapping four-
month stint on the International Space Station. Their collective
mission includes studying the effects of microgravity on the hu-
man body and space-grown plants. Though it’s all in a day’s work
for the astronauts, for those of us back on earth who have grown up
on films that provide endless intergalactic wonder, it’s ... beyond.
Both McClain and Koch share that sense of amazement. “Being
here with Christina and the rest of our crew is like having the cool-
est job and getting to do it with your best friends,” says McClain.
They have been pals since they were selected for the same
astronaut class in 2013 but ended up taking very different paths
to the stars: McClain is a West Point military academy graduate
and veteran Army pilot who studied mechanical and aeronauti-
cal engineering; Koch worked as an electrical engineer at NASA’s
Goddard Space Flight Center and in high-energy astrophysics.
On March 29 all eyes were on them as they were scheduled to be-
come the first-ever female space-walk duo, but McClain (who’d
already completed her first space walk a week earlier, with U.S.
astronaut Nick Hague) decided not to take part in the historic
mission due to safety concerns about wearing a spacesuit that
was, unfortunately, a size too big. It may have been a major WTF
moment on the ground—and even prompted a Saturday Night
Live skit—but the astronauts weren’t fazed. By the time this issue
goes to print, McClain will have returned to terra firma, while
Koch’s residency has been extended to February 2020. This puts
her in prime position to break the record for longest continuous
space flight by a woman (now 288 days, held by NASA’s Peggy
Whitson). And from there, not even the sky is the limit.
How does it feel to be on the International Space Station
together? ANNE MCCLAIN: We’ve grown up together
professionally. We still rememberM A K ING
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 161)
Anne McClain
(left) and
Christina Koch
pose aboard the
International
Space Station
in April.