Christina Koch is a member of the North Carolina State Wolfpack, and a former Jacksonville resident. And now she will be a Mission Specialist on Artemis 2, the first NASA moon mission in over 50 years.
“Am I excited? Absolutely,” said Koch, to a packed auditorium at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where the announcement was made. “But my question to you is, are you excited?”
The gathering erupted in cheers.
Koch already holds the world record for the longest spaceflight by a woman, spending 328 days on the International Space Station (ISS). While on the ISS, she also participated in the first all-female astronaut spacewalk.
Learn more about Christina Koch in this video from NASA.
Koch is joined by naval aviators Reid Wiseman and Victor Glover, and Canadian Air Force Captain Jeremy Hansen as the Artemis 2 crew. Wiseman served as a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station. Glover served as pilot on the first operational flight of the Space X Crew Dragon spacecraft. Hansen has never been to space.
The three Americans and one Canadian will be the first to fly NASA’s Orion capsule to the moon and back. They will launch atop a Space Launch System rocket from the Kennedy Space Center no earlier than late 2024.
“This is humanity’s crew,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, before announcing the members of Artemis 2.
This is the first NASA moon crew to include a woman and someone not from the U.S., and the first crew in NASA’s Artemis moon landing program.
“With a work ethic and a willingness to lend a hand that only someone who spent summers working on a farm growing up can have,” said Norm Knight, NASA’s Director of Flight Operations Directorate, in introducing Koch and praising her work ethic.
“You have already made your mark in the remote corners of the planet. You have already been in the history books as a record setting astronaut. You’re a trailblazer and role model for every generation to come,” added knight.
NASA chose from 41 active astronauts for its first Artemis crew. Canada had four candidates.
The Artemis 1 mission flew to the moon in 2022. The unmanned mission was the first test of the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System. The successful first test paved the way for Artemis 2.
Koch and her crewmates will not land on the moon or even go into lunar orbit. The mission plan calls for a check of all systems while in Earth orbit, then a flight to the moon and back. Artemis 2 is a prelude to a lunar landing by two other astronauts a year later.
Koch explained the mission at the crew announcement.
”We will be on top of the most powerful rocket NASA has ever made and we’ll hear the words ‘go for launch,’” said Koch. “We’ll ride that rocket into Earth orbit for eight minutes. Then we’re going to stay in an amazing high orbit, reaching a peak of tens of thousands of miles while we test out all the systems on Orion and even see how it maneuvers in space. Then if all goes well, we’re heading to the moon. The journey will cover a quarter of a million miles, going around the far side of the moon.”
Provided all goes well on the 10-days mission, NASA aims to have the first woman and first person of color landing on the moon by 2025.
NASA sent 24 astronauts to the moon during the Apollo program, which ran from 1968-1972. 12 astronauts landed on the moon. The Apollo astronauts were all military pilots, except for Harrison Schmitt, a geologist who flew on the final Apollo mission, Apollo 17.