Christina Koch

Background

Electrical engineer and astronaut Christina Koch was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and grew up in Jacksonville, North Carolina. She spent summers with her grandparents on the family farm in Michigan, where she worked and spent time outdoors. She knew that she wanted to be an astronaut from a very young age. She told her kindergarten teachers and, later, her college professors her ambition. She loved to gaze at the stars and think about the vastness of space and humans’ place in it. In middle school, she became a member of the Rocket Club and visited the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Koch attended North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina, as one of only a few women in her science classes. She earned bachelor of science degrees in electrical engineering in 2001 and physics in 2002. She also earned a master of science degree in electrical engineering in 2002. In many of her early jobs, she was one of just a few women.

Life’s Work

Koch worked for a time as an electrical engineer at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Her work involved using scientific instruments that were used on space science missions. However, also interested in exploring Antarctica, she worked in the area as a research associate between 2004 and 2007. She spent a season at Palmer Station and a winter-over at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, simultaneously serving on the firefighting and search and rescue teams. Few people winter over at the South Pole, so the experience is isolating.

Koch next developed space science instruments at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory from 2007 to 2009. After returning at the start of the 2010s to Antarctica to perform scientific fieldwork at Palmer Station before working in the Arctic at Greenland's Summit Station, she then joined the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and served as a field engineer in Utqiagvik, Alaska, and as a station chief of the American Samoa Observatory.

Meanwhile, in 2001, Koch had participated in the NASA Academy program at Goddard. In 2013, she was chosen as one of eight members of the twenty-first NASA astronaut class. She completed astronaut candidate training in 2015 and was assigned to her first space flight in 2018.

On March 14, 2019, Koch, astronaut Nick Hague, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft. She returned to Earth on February 6, 2020. She was a flight engineer on the International Space Station (ISS) for Expeditions 59, 60, and 61. The crew conducted experiments in biology, earth science, human research, physical science, and technology development. Koch spent forty-two hours and fifteen minutes in space on six spacewalks. Koch and fellow astronaut Anne McClain were slated to conduct the first all-female spacewalk on March 29, 2019, but only one of the spacesuits on the ISS would fit them both. McClain bowed out, and Koch had the opportunity to spacewalk that day with Hague. The crew spent months reconfiguring another suit that would fit astronaut Jessica Meir. On October 18, 2019, Koch and Meir left the ISS. On the first all-women spacewalk, they spent more than seven hours replacing a battery unit.

Back on Earth, Koch was branch chief of the Assigned Crew Branch in the Astronaut Office.

On April 3, 2023, NASA announced Koch was among four astronauts chosen for the Artemis II lunar mission. The others announced were Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman. Koch was designated Mission Specialist 1. After multiple delays, Koch joined the Artemis II mission in April 2026. The astronauts conducted a lunar flyby in the Orion spacecraft, during which they traveled farther than any humans have before and witnessed a solar eclipse from the Moon. After nine days, the Artemis II crew successfully returned to Earth. 

Impact

Koch has earned several awards and honors, including NASA Group Achievement Awards in 2005 and 2012. She received the Neil Armstrong Award of Excellence from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, the Astronautics Engineer Award from the National Space Club and Foundation, and the Global ATHENA Leadership Award from ATHENA International, all in 2020.

Koch set a record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, having spent 328 days in space. With the Artemis II mission, which was meant to serve as one stage in the process of eventually establishing a lunar base, she became the first woman on a lunar mission and joined her crew in breaking the 1970 record set by Apollo 13 for the farthest humans had ever traveled from Earth.

Koch said she hoped to be an inspiration to future astronauts and scientists.

Personal Life

Koch married Robert Koch, and they lived in Texas.

Bibliography

"Artemis II." NASA, 10 Apr. 2026, www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/. Accessed 21 Apr. 2026.

“Christina H. Koch.” NASA, Aug. 2022, www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/hammock-cm.pdf. Accessed 21 Apr. 2026.

Garcia, Ariana. “Why Record-Breaking NASA Astronaut Christina Hammock Koch Is Going to the Moon.” Houston Chronicle, 28 July 2023, www.chron.com/news/space/article/christina-hammock-koch-nasa-artemis-17878016.php. Accessed 21 Apr. 2026.

Goldwasser, Max. “‘For All of Humanity’: GR Native Christina Koch Prepares for NASA’s Artemis II Mission.” Fox 17, 24 Apr. 2023, www.fox17online.com/fox-17-unfiltered/for-all-of-humanity-gr-native-christina-koch-prepares-for-nasas-artemis-ii-mission. Accessed 21 Apr. 2026.

Graff, Frank. “Christina Koch Joins Crew of Artemis 2.” PBS North Carolina, 4 Apr. 2023, www.pbsnc.org/blogs/science/christina-koch-joins-crew-of-artemis-2/. Accessed 21 Apr. 2026.

"Highlights from Artemis II’s Historic Journey Around the Moon." The New York Times, 7 Apr. 2026, www.nytimes.com/live/2026/04/06/science/nasa-artemis-ii-moon-lunar-flyby. Accessed 21 Apr. 2026.

Koch, Christina. "Christina Koch Is Headed to the Moon, Exactly Like She Dreamed She Would." Interview by Josh Sullivan and Jeff Tiberii. WUNC, 8 May 2024, www.wunc.org/news/2024-05-08/christina-koch-astronaut-nc-state-nasa-moon-space. Accessed 21 Apr. 2026.

Koch, Christina. “NASA’s Christina Koch on Becoming the First Woman on a Moon Mission & the Perspective Space Has Given Her.” Interview by Rosa Sanchez. Harper’s Bazaar, 5 Apr. 2023, www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a43507774/nasa-astronaut-christina-koch-first-woman-moon-mission-interview/. Accessed 21 Apr. 2026.

“North Carolina Astronaut Christina Koch Selected by NASA to Be First Woman to Fly Around the Moon.” ABC 11, 3 Apr. 2023, abc11.com/christina-koch-artemis-2-launch-date-ii/13078210/. Accessed 21 Apr. 2026.

Wendel, JoAnna. “Christina Hammock Koch: Record-Breaking NASA Astronaut.” Space, 25 Oct. 2021, www.space.com/christina-koch. Accessed 21 Apr. 2026.