NASA announced the names of four astronauts, who will be the first humans to return to the Moon in over 50 years. Among the four is astronaut Christina Koch, who will be the first woman to go around the Moon.
Astronaut Christina Hammock Koch will become the first woman to go around the Moon ever since humanity began exploring the lunar world. According to the US space organisation NASA, four people will join the Orion spacecraft for a journey around the Moon, and Koch will serve as the mission specialist.
Only men have travelled to lunar orbit and the surface of the moon so far. The new expedition signifies a woman astronaut's first entry into the lunar environment. On the 10-day journey around the moon, Koch will be accompanied by scientists Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, and Reid Wiseman, according to a statement from NASA.
Meet the first member of our II Moon crew: mission specialist !
Christina Koch visited the in 2019, where she took part in the first all-woman spacewalk. She began her career as an electrical engineer at . pic.twitter.com/mi82SayXUm
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Christina Hammock Koch, an astronaut who joined NASA in 2013, worked as a flight engineer on Expeditions 59, 60, and 61 of the International Space Station (ISS). Koch, who is originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan, attended North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina, and graduated with a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering as well as Bachelor of Science degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering.
Koch has experience in both remote scientific field engineering and space science equipment creation. At the beginning of her employment, she worked as an electrical engineer at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), where she helped develop scientific instruments for a number of space science projects.
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On the Soyuz MS-12 ship, she was first sent into orbit in 2019 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. NASA reports that Koch and her crewmates participated in hundreds of studies in biology, Earth science, human study, physical science, and technology development while working as Flight Engineers on the ISS for Expeditions 59, 60, and 61.
Koch spent 42 hours and 15 minutes in space over the course of six spacewalks, including the first three all-female spacewalks. She has been in orbit for 328 days in all.