Christina Hammock Koch (or Christina M. Hammock) is an American engineer and NASA astronaut. In 2019, Christina Koch and Jessica Meir became the first women to participate in an all-female spacewalk. She holds the record for the longest solo space flight by a woman with 328 days in space and six spacewalks. On 3 April 2023, he made headlines when he was selected as part of the crew for the Artemis II flight, intended to orbit the Moon in 2024.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Christina Hammock Koch was born on Monday, January 29, 1979 (age 44 years; as in 2023) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, US. Their zodiac sign is Aquarius. Her family moved to Dearborn, Michigan when she was an infant. Later, when Christina was a young girl, the family relocated to North Carolina. Growing up, she often visited Grand Rapids for a few weeks each summer and stayed at her grandparents’ farm in Sparta. Koch dreamed of becoming an astronaut since childhood. It was a summer at Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, that fueled his passion to become an astronaut. He attended White Oak High School in Jacksonville and then the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham, from which he graduated in 1997.
Subsequently, he pursued a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Physics and then a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC. In 2001, Koch graduated from the NASA Academy at Goddard Space Flight Center.
Physical Appearance
Height (Approx): 5′ 4″
Hair Colour: Light Brown
Eye colour: Light brown
Family
His mother is from Frederick, Maryland, and his father is from Jacksonville, NC. His roots come from West Michigan.
parents and siblings
His father, Ronald Hammock, is a urologist. His mother’s name is Barbara (Homrich) Johnson. He has four brothers and sisters. She is the eldest daughter among them. His younger sister’s name is Devon Johnson.
husband and children
Her husband’s name is Robert Koch.
Other
His maternal grandparents are Walter Homerick and Dolores Homerick. The Homericks are farmers and owners of the popular Under the Pines fruit market on Alpine Avenue NW in Comstock Park. The Homerick Family Farm, Under the Pines, is owned by Walter and Dolores Homerick, and run by Christina Hammock’s uncle, Dave Homerick.
livelihood
Koch began his career as an electrical engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, where he worked on space science instrument design. Simultaneously, he also served as adjunct faculty at Montgomery College, Maryland, and led physics laboratory courses. From 2004 to 2007, he worked as a research associate with the United States Antarctic Program, completing several deployments, including a year-long stay at the Edmunsen-Scott South Pole Station during the winter, in temperatures ranging from minus 111 degrees Fahrenheit (- 79.4 C) was experienced. , and a season at Palmer Station. In this capacity, he served as a member of firefighting and search and rescue teams. She then returned to space science instrument development as an electrical engineer at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory (2007–2009), where she contributed to missions such as the Juno probe at Jupiter. She then returned to her work at remote scientific research stations, including a session as a field engineer in the Arctic. Prior to his nomination to NASA’s 2013 astronaut class, he served as chief of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) station in American Samoa.
He was selected as one of eight members of the 21st NASA astronaut class in 2013 and completed astronaut candidate training in 2015. On March 14, 2019, he flew to the International Space Station (ISS) on Soyuz MS-12 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. , He served as a flight engineer on the ISS for Expeditions 59, 60, and 61 and contributed to numerous experiments in biology, Earth sciences, human research, physics, and technology development. On October 18, 2019, Koch and Jessica Meir became the first women to participate in an all-female spacewalk to replace a downed power control unit located outside the ISS. Koch conducted six spacewalks, including the first three all-female spacewalks, totaling 42 hours and 15 minutes. On December 28, 2019, Koch broke the record for the longest continuous stay in space by a woman with a long stay of 328 days in the ISS, surpassing Peggy Whitson’s long stay of 289 days. She returned from space on February 6, 2020.
Following his space flight, Koch served as branch chief of the Assigned Crew Branch in the Astronaut Office. He currently serves in a rotational position as Assistant to the Director of NASA Johnson Space Center for Technology Integration. In 2017, NASA established the Artemis program with three partner agencies—the European Space Agency (ESA), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The Robotic and Human Moon Exploration Program was launched in 1972 to re-establish human presence on the Moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission. The first space flight of NASA’s Artemis program, Artemis 1, was an unmanned Moon-orbiting mission that was launched. On November 16, 2022. On April 3, 2023, Koch was replaced by Gregory R. Wiseman, along with Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen, were selected as part of the crew for the Artemis II flight. Artemis 2 is the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 in 1972 to conduct a lunar flyby test and return to Earth. If the mission is successful, Christina Hammock Koch will become the first woman to orbit the Moon.
Awards, Honors, Achievements
- Neil Armstrong Excellence Award, Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, 2020
- Astronautics Engineer Award, National Space Club and Foundation, 2020
- Global Athena Leadership Award, Athena International, 2020
- NASA Group Achievement Award, NASA Juno Mission Jupiter Energetic Particle Detector Instrument, 2012
- Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Invention of the Year nominee, 2009
- United States Congress Antarctic Service Medal with Winter-Over Distinction, 2005
- NASA Group Achievement Award, NASA Suzaku Mission X-ray Spectrometer Instrument, 2005
Facts/General Knowledge
- Her family members lovingly call her Tina.
- In an interview, he revealed that he studied abroad in Ghana, West Africa.
- In her free time, Koch enjoys backpacking, rock climbing, paddling, surfing, running, traveling, and doing yoga, community service, and photography.
- In December 2020, Koch was awarded an honorary Doctor of Sciences degree from his alma mater, North Carolina State University.
- He has driven solo across America on a motorcycle from North Carolina to Montana.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn