Christina Koch has been appointed as the mission specialist for NASA’s Artemis III mission, which, if successful, will make her the first woman to set foot on the moon. Her historical moonwalk will break gender barriers over fifty years after the first moon landing, which is criticised for being exclusionary to men of one race. The upcoming Artemis III mission, set to launch in 2025, will feature Koch as the first woman to walk on the moon, along with Victor Glover, the first person of colour. Koch was born in Michigan and raised in North Carolina, where she attended the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics and North Carolina State University, where she earned two Bachelor of Science degrees in electrical engineering and physics and a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering.
Koch made history in October 2019, along with astronaut Jessica Meir, as one of the two women ever to complete an all-female spacewalk. In 2019 and 2020, she spent 328 consecutive days in microgravity, setting the record for the longest duration in space for a woman during a single mission. During her time in space, she conducted hundreds of experiments, including studies on protein crystals and plants in space. She participated in research to support future exploration missions, including studies of how the human body adapts to weightlessness, radiation, isolation, and the stress of long-duration spaceflight.
In addition to her impressive space achievements, Koch has also served as the station chief of the American Samoa Observatory and contributed to the development of instruments used in the Juno mission and the Van Allen Probe. In a joint profile with Jessica Meir, former NASA astronaut Mae Jemison wrote in TIME magazine that Koch’s appointment to the Artemis III mission is a significant step towards breaking the pattern of using men’s perspectives, values, measurements, comfort, and ambitions as the default template for designing major human endeavors.
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