Last Friday, the historic Artemis II mission returned to Earth after orbiting the Moon for the first time since 1972 and traveling the farthest out into space any humans had ever been before. The crew was made up of four astronauts: Pilot Victor Glover, Commander Reid Wiseman, and mission specialists Jermey Hansen and Christina Koch.
Like many Americans, I would occasionally turn on the live streams over the nine days they were in space, and kept up with the updates and interviews with the crew as they orbited the moon. One of my favorite moments that came from the mission was when Artemis II was able to connect their radio with the crew of the International Space Station, and Koch was able to share a moment with her “astro-sister” Jessica Muir.
Koch was previously aboard the ISS for a long duration in 2019, along with her friend and fellow 2013 astronaut class graduate Jessica Muir. The two made history when they were aboard the ISS together after they completed the first all-female spacewalk. Now, Koch was able to make history a second time seven years later aboard the Artemis II spacecraft.
When Koch and her crewmates connected with the ISS, she was able to have a moment to connect with Muir again saying, “I always hoped we would be back in space together, but I never thought it would be like this!”
I found this moment, of the two women rejoicing at meeting again in space, a very pivotal moment from the trip. For many years, the majority of astronauts have been men, so to have a moment where two women on separate missions through space were able to connect seems like a huge turning point in the way we think about astronauts and space. Women will one day cease to be exceptions to the norm, but rather the standard, due to trailblazers like Muir and Koch, whose work continues to pave the way for the women who come after them.
Koch was a major source of inspiration for many throughout the entire trip. She holds the record for the longest consecutive amount of time any woman has been in space, and is now officially the first woman to ever go to the moon.
The image of Koch looking out the window of the spacecraft at Earth with her pigtail braid floating around her has perhaps become one of the most iconic photos from the mission. The fact that she was wearing pigtail braids seemed to resonate with many women across the globe, myself included, as it was a sort of reminder that this amazingly talented astronaut was also once just a girl who wore braids in her hair and dreamed of visiting the stars like many other little girls do now. Koch was able to get to the stars, and so could any of those other girls who now look to her as the reason why.
Women have always been essential to the success of space exploration, from Katherine Johnson’s and Margaret Hamilton’s work in calculating the first manned missions into space, to Sally Ride and Katheryn Sullivan paving the way with firsts for women in space. Christina Koch, Jessica Muir, and all the women involved in these scientific breakthroughs with NASA are not just important for the sake of science but also to serve as inspiration for generations of women to come.