Meet NASA’s Christina Koch, the Woman About to Make History on the Moon

The Record-Breaking Astronaut Returns to Space

Christina Koch already holds the record for the longest spaceflight by a woman.

She spent 328 consecutive days aboard the International Space Station, orbiting Earth more than 5,200 times. She conducted the first all-female spacewalk.

And now she is about to add another first to her resume.

In early 2026, Koch will climb aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft and travel farther from Earth than any woman in history. The moon is 240,000 miles away, and she will loop around it before returning home.

The journey will take about 10 days, but reaching this moment took more than 50 years.

328 Days in Space Prepared Her

Koch launched to the International Space Station in March 2019 and did not come home until February 2020. During that time, she completed six spacewalks totaling more than 42 hours outside the station.

She helped upgrade the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, grew protein crystals for cancer research, and tested 3D bioprinters in microgravity.

On October 18, 2019, she and astronaut Jessica Meir stepped outside together for the first all-female spacewalk, replacing a failed battery unit. The work took more than seven hours.

Koch returned to Earth holding the record for longest continuous spaceflight by a woman.

She Dreamed of Space Since Kindergarten

Koch grew up in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and told her kindergarten teachers she wanted to be an astronaut.

She spent summers on her family’s farm in Michigan, where she developed a love for hard work and the outdoors.

She attended the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, then earned degrees in electrical engineering and physics from NC State University.

After graduating, she worked at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center on instruments for space telescopes. Then she headed to Antarctica for a year-long research station assignment, learning to work in extreme isolation.

Her Path Led Through Antarctica and the Arctic

Before NASA, Koch worked in some of the most remote places on Earth.

She spent a winter at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica, where she served on the firefighting and search-and-rescue teams.

She later worked at Palmer Station in Antarctica and Summit Station in Greenland. These postings taught her how to function in isolation, handle emergencies, and maintain equipment in harsh conditions.

When NASA selected her as an astronaut in 2013, she was working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in American Samoa as station chief.

Four Astronauts Will Circle the Moon

Koch will fly alongside three crewmates on Artemis II. Commander Reid Wiseman is a Navy pilot and veteran astronaut.

Pilot Victor Glover will become the first person of color to travel to the moon.

Mission specialist Jeremy Hansen, a Canadian fighter pilot, will be the first non-American to make the journey. Together, they will test the Orion spacecraft’s systems with humans aboard for the first time.

The mission will send them 6,400 miles beyond the far side of the moon, potentially farther from Earth than any humans have ever traveled.

Apollo 17 Was 53 Years Ago

The last time humans traveled to the moon was December 1972.

Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent three days exploring the Taurus-Littrow valley, driving a lunar rover and collecting 243 pounds of moon rocks. Schmitt was the only geologist to walk on the moon.

Before climbing back into the lunar module for the last time, Cernan scratched his daughter’s initials in the dust and promised humanity would return. That promise went unfulfilled for more than half a century.

Every person who has walked on the moon has been an American man.

Women Were Blocked From Early Spaceflight

When NASA formed in 1958, becoming an astronaut required experience as a military test pilot. Women were not allowed to fly combat jets in the United States until 1993.

That single requirement locked them out of the astronaut corps for decades.

Even when NASA began accepting scientists and engineers in the late 1970s, the old system’s legacy lingered.

The agency’s spacesuits were designed for men’s bodies, and some missions were planned without considering that women might fly them.

It took years of gradual change before women could compete equally for flight assignments.

Sally Ride Changed Everything in 1983

Sally Ride was finishing her physics doctorate at Stanford in 1977 when she saw a newspaper ad. NASA was recruiting scientists and engineers, and for the first time, women could apply.

She sent in her application that afternoon. Out of 8,000 applicants, NASA selected 35 new astronauts, including six women.

Ride trained for five years before flying on the Space Shuttle Challenger on June 18, 1983. She became the first American woman in space and the youngest American astronaut to fly.

Today, women make up nearly half of NASA’s astronaut corps.

The Crew Practiced Launch Day in December

On December 20, 2025, the Artemis II crew suited up in orange pressure suits and walked out of the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy Space Center.

They drove to the Vehicle Assembly Building, rode an elevator 275 feet up, and climbed into their Orion spacecraft. For five and a half hours, they practiced the exact steps they will follow on launch day.

Ground controllers ran through the countdown, stopping just 29 seconds before what would be liftoff. The rocket will roll out to the launch pad in mid-January 2026.

Ten Days Around the Moon and Back

Artemis II will launch no earlier than February 5, 2026, from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B.

The crew will orbit Earth while checking Orion’s systems, then fire the upper stage engine to send them toward the moon.

They will loop around the far side on a free-return trajectory that slingshots them back toward Earth without needing another engine burn. The spacecraft will splash down in the Pacific Ocean about 10 days after launch.

Koch and her crewmates will not land on the moon, but they will see it closer than any humans since 1972.

Prada Helped Design the Next Moon Suit

The astronauts who eventually walk on the moon will wear spacesuits designed with help from Italian fashion house Prada.

Axiom Space partnered with Prada to create the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit, which features advanced materials, 4G communications, and an HD camera on the helmet.

The suit is designed to fit a wider range of body types than previous versions, accommodating both men and women from the first to 99th percentile in sizing.

It will protect astronauts from temperatures ranging from 130 degrees Fahrenheit to minus 280 degrees in the permanently shadowed craters of the lunar south pole.

The First Woman on the Moon Comes Next

Artemis III is targeting 2027 for the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17.

NASA has not announced who will walk on the surface, but the mission will include the first woman and first person of color to set foot on the moon.

Two astronauts will descend to the lunar south pole aboard a SpaceX Starship lander while their crewmates remain in orbit.

They plan to spend about a week exploring craters that may contain water ice, a resource that could support a permanent lunar base.

Koch will not be on that mission, but she is helping prove the hardware that makes it possible.

Visit Space Center Houston in Texas

Space Center Houston sits next to NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where Koch trained for her missions.

The museum holds the Apollo 17 command module America, the spacecraft that carried the last moon explorers home in 1972.

Visitors can touch a real moon rock, see the Mission Control room that guided Apollo flights, and walk through a replica of the International Space Station.

The center also features exhibits on the Artemis program and current astronaut training. Admission is $29.95 for adults, and the center is open daily from 10 a. m. to 5 p. m. at 1601 E NASA Parkway, Houston.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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