Christina Koch wanted to be an astronaut for as long as she could remember. And so she became one. As simple as that?
Not quite. But the graduate from North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham, who spent part of her childhood in Jacksonville, North Carolina, has already set the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman with 328 days in space. She participated in the first all-female spacewalk and was a flight engineer on the International Space Station for Expeditions 59 through 61. And in 2025, she will be one of four astronauts who will head to the moon as a part of Artemis II.
The North Carolina State University graduate stopped by the WUNC studio during a recent visit back to the Tar Heel State.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Josh Sullivan: So if my research is correct, you left NASA super early in your career, to go to Antarctica, are you ever worried that you might not be back in this position?
Christina Koch: I did. I quit and left a perfectly good engineering dream job at NASA about two years after I started it to pursue a dream that I had to go to Antarctica. And not only was I worried, but my friends and family were a little worried too, I think.
Leaving that job was a hard decision. But I knew that if I was ever going to come back around and contribute to human spaceflight, like I had dreamed to, I wanted it to be because I followed my own passions, and that my life story, the things that gave me fulfillment is what led me there. And this idea of science and exploration on the frontiers is what drew me to Antarctica and to space. So I knew in that sense that it was the right move.
Did you have a fear? Did you have people advising against that move?
Absolutely. I think the people that knew me the best knew that it was the right move. But from the outside, it looked like maybe not the smartest thing to do. And also probably a little bit confusing.
I had studied engineering; I had gotten this dream job, why would I leave it? But I think all of those things sort of pointed me in that direction of exploration and science on the frontiers.
You obviously are a role model. I see a lot of YouTube videos of you answering questions for kids. And those are some of the most pure, and the most fun. Who were some of your role models?
Looking back, not so many that were actually already astronauts, although I did look to up two astronauts: Sally Ride, of course, is the first American female astronaut, and Mae Jemison the first African-American female astronaut. Those were hero heroes of mine. Absolutely.
But the people that I think inspired me the most, whether I knew at the time or not, were people in my everyday life. My grandmother is a great example. She was a very hard worker — a farmer. She ran the farm, she did it with enthusiasm. She never complained. She loved that place. And she did every job from field work to accounting, and I used to love getting up early with her and going and cutting gladiolas in the morning.
In my college years, I was actually more inspired by people like civil rights movement leaders, because the things that they did were just so brave to me. Ella Baker is a great example from this area, and she just really inspired me.
Jeff Tiberii: You grew up in Jacksonville, and you wanted to become an astronaut from an early age and then you did. Simple as that?
Well I would say maybe not as simple as that, of course, but, in some ways it does seem that simple because the most amazing part was that all of those teachers, coaches, adults, that when I told them I wanted to be an astronaut, I was not discouraged from it. And that aspect of the story is one of the most beautiful parts.
Everyone just told me to go for it. And I'm not sure if it was great advice at the time. But the fact that I had almost a naïve belief that I could do it for many, many years, I think helped propel me in that direction.
And then when I was in the throngs of pursuing it directly, I went to space camp. They actually have a class on how to become an astronaut. And someone actually gets up on the whiteboard and writes a list of things that you should do. And I remember looking around at all the other people at space camp, the wannabe astronauts, that were writing this stuff down vigorously in their notebook and thinking: one, I have no competition, no way of competing with these people. And two, if I want to actually do this thing that I hold in such high regard, I never want it to be because I live my life according to a checklist that someone else gave me.
And so I sort of vowed at that moment that I would live my life according to what fulfilled me. And if later in life, I looked back and saw that that experience could potentially make me someone who could contribute to human spaceflight, only then would I apply to that point.
JT: Are you fulfilled? Are you satisfied? Or are you still hungry? Are you chasing more missions, more answers?
I feel I'm incredibly lucky. I feel very fulfilled. My work has so much meaning for me right now, the things that I'm able to do in my own free time, to give back to the community have so much meaning for me.
I discovered I was good at science and math. And now I get to use that every day to propel humanity's exploration. And also that there's an outreach aspect to the work that I do that is what gives it even more meaning and fulfillment.
There are sort of two times in my career where I had a very poignant sense of that fulfillment. One was when I launched on the launch pad when that rocket started moving, I felt like I was finally fulfilling the things that everyone had trained and prepared me for. And then the second was on my first spacewalk, because there are such mentally and physically challenging things to spacewalks that to bring all that and consolidate together. It was this culmination of everything.
I've worked hard for everything that I love coming together. And to be able to actually complete the mission. That spacewalk was a really special moment for me.
