Who is Christina Koch? NASA astronaut set for womankind's giant leap

Christina Koch has been named the mission specialist of NASA's Artemis III mission, whose success will designate her as the first woman to walk on the Moon. In the annals of recorded human history, Koch may potentially have a pre-fixture of herself whose walk down the lunar surface will leap across the gender barriers over five decades after a human first walked on the Moon. That first walk has often been criticised for being exclusionary because the phrase which came to define its success had men of one race becoming synonymous with humankind: 'One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.'

But as a leap for humankind in2025, NASA's Artemis-III will put the first woman (Christina Koch) and the first person of colour Victor Glover) on the Moon.

Christina Koch with Victor Glover, who will be the first man of colour on Moon | @Astro_Christina/Twitter

Add WION as a Preferred Source

A NASA astronaut of the Class of 2013, Koch was born in Michigan and raised in North Carolina. She graduated from the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, and then enrolled at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, from which she earned two Bachelor of Science degrees, in electrical engineering and physics (2001), and a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering (2002). In December 2020, Koch was awarded an honorary Doctor of Sciences degree from her alma mater, North Carolina State University.

ALSO READ |Explained: NASA unveils Artemis 2 astronauts. Here's all about the moon mission

Christina is also one of the two women-ever to have completed an all-female spacewalk along with another astronaut Jessica Meir in October 2019.

"Men’s physiology, perspectives, values, measurements, comfort and ambitions have mostly been the default template for designing major human endeavours," Mae Jemison, a former NASA astronaut, and the first African-American woman in space wrote in TIME magazine in a joint profile of Koch and Meir.

ALSO WATCH |Artemis I Explained: NASA's first mission to land humans on the moon after 50 years

Christina Koch has spent 328 consecutive days in microgravity in 2019 and 2020, setting the record for the longest duration in space for a woman during a single mission.

During that time, she worked on hundreds of experiments, including studies of protein crystals and plants in space. She participated in a number of studies to support future exploration missions, including research into how the human body adjusts to weightlessness, isolation, radiation, and the stress of long-duration spaceflight, according to a NASA statement.

Koch has also served as station chief of the American Samoa Observatory and has contributed to the development of instruments used to study radiation particles for the Juno mission and the Van Allen Probe.

WATCH WION LIVE HERE

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.