Christina Koch
was selected as a specialist for NASA's
Artemis III
mission , in this way she will be the first woman to step on the Moon, something that will mark the history of Humanity.
Koch, a graduate of North Carolina State University and raised in Jacksonville,
will be one of four astronauts to fly around the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years.
Christina will join American astronauts Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen on the mission, NASA announced from the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The astronauts of the Artemis mission.
NASA's Artemis missions
More than 50 years after the Apollo XI moon landing, NASA took the first step toward returning to the Moon.
The Artemis I mission sought to set foot in the new space age, after several failed attempts.
Artemis I, in 2022, was the first stage of NASA's new lunar exploration program, the ultimate goal of which is to establish a long-term presence on the Moon's surface.
It was the most powerful rocket ever produced to propel
the unmanned Orion spacecraft to the Moon at a speed of 39,400 kilometers per hour.
Christina Koch during the presentation of Artemis III.
"This mission is of the utmost importance because it is the recovery of the path of man's return to the Moon. In this first step, all the capabilities of this new system will be tested, it will go to the Moon and return. In addition, it will bring information about the effects on astronauts on a long journey in space. And it also has small satellites that study the environment of our satellite. This will allow us to go to Mars", explained César Bertucci, astronomer and member of the Institute of Astronomy and Space Physics last year.
The Artemis II mission is estimated to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in late 2024.
This trip will not land astronauts on the Moon
, but it is considered a test flight for the subsequent Artemis III mission, which will land the first woman and person of color on the lunar surface.
Artemis III mission is scheduled for 2025.
Christina Koch: the woman who will reach the Moon and break records
Koch is originally from Michigan but grew up in Jacksonville, North Carolina.
She studied at White Oak High School before attending the School of Science and Mathematics.
Her training continued at North Carolina State University, where she received degrees in electrical engineering and physics in 2001.
She was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2013 and completed astronaut candidate training in 2015.
She also worked as a flight engineer on the International Space Station during three expeditions.
Artemis II (left to right) astronauts Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman (seated), and Vi Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
When she returned from space,
Koch broke the record for the longest spaceflight by a woman, with a total of 328 days in space.
Along with her partner Jessica Meir, also a NASA astronaut,
she participated in the first spacewalk by a woman.
The crews he participated in contributed to hundreds of scientific experiments, according to NASA.
Some of his mission highlights include improvements to a scientific instrument called the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer
, which is used to study dark matter, and growing protein crystals for pharmaceutical research.
Before becoming an astronaut,
Koch held roles in remote field science engineering
, which took her to American Samoa, Antarctica, Alaska, and Greenland, and in space science instrument development.
In addition, she worked as an electrical engineer in the High Energy Astrophysics Laboratory at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and as a research associate in the United States Antarctic Program.
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