The first woman to leave low Earth orbit and take a trip around the moon is set to embark on a new expedition: a trip to N.C. State.
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The university is celebrating Artemis II astronaut Christina Koch — who earned her degrees from N.C. State — later this month with a flurry of events dubbed “Around the Moon and Pack Again.”
Koch and her fellow astronauts captured the world’s attention over 10 days in April as part of NASA’s Artemis II mission, a test flight around the far side of the moon. Koch was the mission specialist and only woman on board.
Her homecoming at N.C. State will begin Aug. 24 with a welcome event open to the public from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. on the Oval of N.C. State’s Centennial Campus, according to the university. Registration for the event opens Wednesday, Aug. 5. The university has not provided a link for registration.
On Aug. 25, Koch will take part in a panel with N.C. State Chancellor Kevin Howell and select faculty and students for a conversation on the role of public higher education in opening pathways like Koch’s. The panel is invite-only and takes place from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in Stewart Theatre of Talley Student Union.
Later on Aug. 25, Koch will speak with students interested in becoming astronauts about ways to manage stressful courseloads. The talk is open to current N.C. State students and is from 3 to 4 p.m. in Stewart Theatre.
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All events will be livestreamed.
The News & Observer previously reported on Koch’s many firsts.
While born in Michigan, she grew up in Jacksonville, N.C. She transferred from White Oak High School in the coastal North Carolina city to Durham’s N.C. School of Science and Math, a residential public high school.
From there, she went to N.C. State, where she graduated with degrees in electrical engineering and physics and a master’s degree in electrical engineering.
She speaks often about her pride of N.C. State. She last came to the university for a public event in 2023, when she joined then-Chancellor Randy Woodson for his fall address.
While aboard the International Space Station, Koch was part of the first all-woman spacewalk in 2019. That year, she started a mission that broke the world record for the longest spaceflight by a woman, staying in orbit for 320 days between 2019 and 2020.
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