NC astronaut Christina Koch will be part of NASA Artemis II mission to the moon

Christina Koch, who grew up in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and graduated from N.C. State University, will be part of the first crew of astronauts to travel around the moon in more than 50 years, NASA announced Monday.

Koch will join two other astronauts from the United States and one from Canada on the estimated 10-day Artemis II mission, which will test the Orion spacecraft’s systems to confirm they can perform and operate “as designed with people aboard in the actual environment of deep space,” NASA’s description of the mission states.

The Artemis II mission is estimated to take off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in late 2024.

The mission will not involve astronauts actually landing on the moon, but is considered a test flight that will “pave the way” for the Artemis III mission, which is intended to land the first-ever woman and person of color on the moon. That mission is planned for 2025.

Koch’s involvement in the Artemis II mission won’t be the first time the astronaut has made history.

In December 2019, she broke the world record for the longest spaceflight by a woman, going on to spend more than 300 days in orbit. Earlier in 2019, she was part of the first all-female spacewalk, installing a solar power system for the International Space Station with fellow NASA astronaut Jessica Meir.

Who is Christina Koch? Astronaut’s ties to NC

Koch is originally from Michigan, but grew up in Jacksonville, near the North Carolina coast.

She dreamed of becoming an astronaut as a child, The News & Observer previously reported, gazing up at the night sky through her family’s telescope in their backyard. She never grew out of that dream.

“No one told me I couldn’t do it,” Koch told The N&O in 2019. “And so that dream kept right on growing and growing.”

She attended White Oak High School in Jacksonville before attending the North Carolina School of Science and Math, a residential, public high school in Durham that is part of the UNC System.

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Koch attended college at N.C. State University, receiving bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and physics in 2001. She also holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the university.

Koch is the first graduate of N.C. State to go to space. She spoke at the university’s virtual commencement ceremony in 2020, where she received an honorary Ph.D.

Koch was selected in 2013 as one of eight members of NASA’s 21st astronaut class, then completed astronaut candidate training in 2015. She was assigned in 2018 to her first space flight, a long duration mission on the International Space Station that launched in March 2019.

On that mission, Koch demonstrated her long-held passion for photography and love for North Carolina when she posted to Twitter a photo of the Outer Banks from space. She also took with her on the mission a small memento representing N.C. State, a printed circuit board with an etching of the wolf mascot wearing an astronaut helmet.

Koch was The News & Observer’s Tar Heel of the Month in August 2019, which honors people who have made significant contributions to North Carolina and the region.