By Zoila Palma: Christina Koch has made history as the first woman to travel around the Moon, completing a landmark journey aboard Artemis II.
The mission, launched April 1, 2026, marked humanity’s return to the Moon’s vicinity for the first time in more than half a century and concluded with a successful splashdown on April 10 off the coast of California after nearly 10 days in space.
Koch served as mission specialist alongside NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
The crew traveled as far as 252,756 miles from Earth during their lunar flyby, setting a new record for the farthest distance humans have ever journeyed. The mission was powered by NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, which delivered the Orion spacecraft into orbit with precision.
Before Artemis II, Koch was already a record-setting astronaut.
Selected by NASA in 2013, she spent 328 consecutive days aboard the International Space Station between 2019 and 2020, the longest single spaceflight by a woman. During that mission, she participated in the first all-female spacewalks, helping advance both scientific research and gender milestones in human spaceflight.
An engineer and explorer, Koch’s career has spanned extreme environments on Earth and beyond. She worked on space science instruments at NASA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and served in remote locations including Antarctica, the Arctic, and Alaska. Her work included a winter-over mission at the South Pole, as well as roles in firefighting and search and rescue teams, demonstrating the resilience and technical expertise that would later define her astronaut career.
With Artemis II now complete, Koch has further cemented her place in history as a pioneer of deep space exploration.
Her journey around the Moon not only represents a major milestone for NASA’s Artemis program but also paves the way for future missions aimed at landing humans on the lunar surface and eventually sending astronauts onward to Mars.
The post International News: Christina Koch is first woman to travel around Moon appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
By Zoila Palma: Christina Koch has made history as the first woman to travel around the Moon, completing a landmark journey aboard Artemis II. The mission, launched April 1, 2026, marked humanity’s return to the Moon’s vicinity for the first time in more than half a century and concluded with a successful splashdown on April
The post International News: Christina Koch is first woman to travel around Moon appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.