On the evening of Wednesday, April 1, 2026, NASA’s Orion spacecraft rocketed off a launch pad to begin the agency’s Artemis II mission. The four astronauts manning the craft were tasked with going farther from Earth than any human before on a flight around the moon and back. The mission’s aim was to lay the groundwork for future human exploration to the moon and eventually Mars. To document their travel, the astronauts sent pictures, did video calls, and communicated discoveries back to Earth. On Friday, April 10, the spacecraft Orion made a textbook splashdown off the coast of San Diego. The four operators were helped onto the waiting USS Murtha by members of the US Navy.
Artemis II’s crew itself also marked multiple firsts in space exploration, with the first woman and black man to visit the other side of the moon, and the first Canadian on a moon mission. But one member of this crew is particularly special for North Carolinians and Raleighites: the aforementioned woman, Christina Koch.
Though born in Grand Rapids, MI, Koch grew up in Jacksonville NC and attended NC State University. There she received Bachelor of Science degrees in electrical engineering and physics as well as a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering. Before becoming an astronaut in 2013, Koch had gained experience and skills doing engineering field work in the harsh Arctic and Antarctic environments. In 2019, Koch spent 328 days on the ISS for Expeditions 59, 60, and 61, therefore completing the longest ever single spaceflight by a woman.
“I feel like she accomplished a lot from being from North Carolina and then us being in North Carolina, knowing that they went around the moon,” said Aniyah Franklin, a junior at Millbrook.
North Carolinians showed their pride and support for the crew on Friday, April 10. That evening, North Carolina State University’s student union was the site of a celebration of the return of the Artemis II’s crew. There, students and Raleigh community members came together to watch the spaceship’s successful landing, attendees sharing their esteem for their now famous alumna.
“I like the support,” Lily Kleinert, a Millbrook sophomore, said of how the mission made her feel as a citizen of Raleigh. “We don’t normally get that much support.”
On Saturday, April 11, the Artemis II crew members were honored at a welcome home event in Houston. Just a day after they had returned from a mission that took them–literally–to the moon and back, the astronauts were alert and animated during the event at which they all spoke. Koch, third to make remarks, relayed what she had learned and discovered personally during the mission. She gave her account of something many astronauts have described–viewing our planet from the point of outer space.
Seeming emotional as she stood before the crowd, she said “And honestly– what struck me wasn’t necessarily just Earth. It was all the blackness around it. Earth was just this lifeboat- hanging, undisturbingly, in the universe.” Continuing, Koch expressed the main takeaway she got from her unmatched journey: the difference between a crew and a team.
“A crew is…a group that is in it all the time, no matter what-that is stroking together, every minute, with the same purpose. That is willing to sacrifice silently for each other. That gives grace. That holds accountable. A crew has the same cares and the same needs. And a crew is inescapably, beautifully, dutifully, linked,” said Koch as she looked around at her comrades and crew members Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Jeremy Hansen.
“Planet Earth,” Koch ended her speech, “You are a crew.”
