Meet Christina Koch: Artemis II Astronaut Set To Become The First Woman To Fly To The Moon

Artemis II: On April 3, 2023, NASA announced Christina Koch as a mission specialist for Artemis II, the first crewed flight test and the second leg of the Artemis Program.

NASA astronaut Christina Koch is set to become the first woman to fly to the Moon. She has been selected as a mission specialist for Artemis II.

Source : NASA

NASA astronaut Christina Koch is set to become the first woman to fly to the Moon. On April 3, 2023, NASA announced Koch as a mission specialist for Artemis II, the first crewed flight test and the second leg of the Artemis Program. Koch will fly on Artemis II with three other astronauts: NASA astronauts Victor J Glover and Gregory Reid Wiseman, and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Roger Hansen.

The four astronauts will venture around the Moon as part of Artemis II, in order to test and stress life-support systems of the Orion spacecraft to prove the capabilities and techniques required to live and work in deep space in ways only humans can do. 

Here is everything you need to know about Koch.

Selected as a NASA astronaut in 2013, Koch served as flight engineer on the International Space Station (ISS) for Expeditions 59, 60 and 61, and set a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman with a total of 328 days in space. Koch also participated in the first all-female spacewalks.

She is a native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, grew up in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and resided in Livingston, Montana, NASA says on its website. When she was living in Montana, she was selected to join the Astronaut Corps.

Koch's educational experience 

Koch earned her Bachelor of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering and Physics, and a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Koch has been awarded an Honorary PhD from North Carolina State University.

Koch's career before becoming an astronaut 

Before becoming a NASA astronaut, she carried out both space science instrument development and worked on remote scientific field engineering. She began her career as an electrical engineer at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. There, she contributed to scientific instruments on several NASA space science missions. 

After this, she became a research associate in the United States Antarctic Program which included a year-long stay with a winter-over at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station and a season at Palmer Station. While working as a research associate at the South Pole, she served as a member of the Firefighting and Search and Rescue Teams.

Then, she returned to space science instrument development as an electrical engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory's Space Department. There, Koch contributed to instruments on missions including Juno and the Van Allen Probes.

After this, Koch returned to remote scientific field work with tours at the Palmer Station in Antarctica and winter seasons at the Summit Station in Greenland. 

Next, Koch joined the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and continued work at remote scientific bases.

Before becoming an astronaut, Koch's career focused on technical instructing, volunteer tutoring and educational research.

Koch's NASA and spaceflight experience

In 2001, Koch participated in the NASA Academy program at Goddard Space Flight Center and worked as an electrical engineer there. In 2013, Koch was selected as one of the eight members of the 21st NASA astronaut class. In 2015, Koch completed her astronaut candidate training. 

Koch was assigned to her first long-duration mission on the ISS in 2018.

On March 14, 2019, Koch launched on the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with another NASA astronaut and a Roscosmos cosmonaut. 

While serving as a flight engineer during Expeditions 59, 60 and 61, Koch performed hundreds of experiments in biology, Earth science, human research, physical science and technology development, along with her crewmates. 

She conducted six spacewalks, which included the first three all-women spacewalks. Koch's spacewalks totalled 42 hours and 15 minutes.

After spending a total of 328 days in space, Koch returned to Earth on February 6, 2020, on the MS-13 Soyuz spacecraft with a Roscosmos cosmonaut and a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut. 

Koch served as branch chief of the assigned crew branch in NASA's Astronaut Office, after the spaceflight.