Oh, NASA, how I’ve missed you. You know, for the longest time growing up, I’d wanted to be an astronaut. I thought that exploring outer space was something truly possible for me, and I developed a very strong interest in astronomy and spaceflight. Now I know that’s just not for me. It’s not because it isn’t possible, absolutely not; Barbie taught me I can be anything I want to be. Rather, it’s because I hate math so badly that I don’t think I could ever have made it through even one semester of an engineering degree. Luckily for me, I don’t have to do that! Christina Koch has enough academic prowess to compensate.
Christina Koch is an academic, social, astronautical, and scientific powerhouse. Quite possibly, Koch is one of the most experienced and qualified active astronauts right now. Koch holds Bachelor of Sciences in electrical engineering and physics, as well as a Master of Science in electrical engineering. She extensively helped to develop science instruments and field engineering specifically designed for space at NASA and Johns Hopkins University, and has held a physics laboratory course at Montgomery College. So, she’s basically an academic neighbor for us Loyola Maryland Students.
Koch became an astronaut in 2013, being able to go to space in March of 2019. She had lived and worked on the International Space Station (ISS) for nearly all of 2019 and a little bit of 2020. She served as a flight engineer during this mission and participated in the first-ever all-female spacewalk on October 18, 2019. In the end, she had been on the ISS for 328 consecutive days, making it the longest female spaceflight ever and a very important case to study regarding women’s health in space. Oh, and while Koch was on this mission, she became the first person to make a Wikipedia edit while actively residing in outer space.
Something that likely helped her prepare for the intense mental, physical, and emotional stress and isolation that accompany living in space for a little under a year was her three-and-a-half years in the Arctics and Antarctics. From 2007 to 2009, she was on firefighting and search-and-rescue teams for oceans and glaciers, which is not something I think anyone has ever said they wanted to be when they grew up. Koch had once described that experience as extremely difficult, since the monotony of the landscape and routine required a lot of effort to thrive in. I just don’t know how she did it. I’d go crazy within a month!
Now we get to the part everyone should know of by now: the Artemis II mission. This is the second of four missions to the moon, wherein Artemis II’s main purpose is to test if it is possible to launch and bring back astronauts. NASA’s already done this before with the Apollo missions, but the phone or laptop you’re reading this on has more data storage and processing space than the computers that launched those missions did. It’s good practice to ensure modern technology works just as well as, if not better than, 1970’s technology.
Christina Koch is taking the role of mission specialist for this mission. She is accompanied by pilot Victor Glover, commander Reid Wiseman, and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) mission specialist Jeremy Hansen. They each have their own unique accomplishments during this mission. Koch is the first woman, Glover the first person of color, Wiseman the oldest person, and Hansen the first non-U.S. citizen to travel this far out of low-Earth orbit, of which is 4,101 miles further than Apollo 13’s distance.
Now, that’s a lot of numbers and facts, but the important part is that Christina Koch is objectively amazing. She’s an incredible person, inspiring many young girls to know they can be astronauts exploring our moons and planets when they grow up. Her joy and pride in herself and what she does can be felt anytime you see her on those NASA Instagram posts. Koch inspires me, too, even though I’m not really a physics or engineering person. She makes me love space again, reminds me that I can truly enjoy my passions, and overall makes me feel as though I can do it. What “it” is can be up for debate, but I know that “it” encompasses everything I could ever dream of setting out to do. Koch is an inspiration through just doing what she loves, which I think is truly powerful.
Personally, I made sure I was sat with my popcorn ready to watch NASA’s Mission Control livestream of the Artemis II crew’s lunar flyby on Monday, and you can be sure I’ll do the same for Friday, when the crew will be splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. I hope you’ll join me in their YouTube live chat, sending “amaze, amaze, amaze” over and over again, welcoming our astronauts back home!