'An incredible privilege and responsibility': Artemis 2's Christina Koch is ready to become the 1st woman to fly around the moon

Koch's crewmates are NASA commander Reid Wiseman, NASA pilot Victor Glover (who will become the first Black person to leave LEO) and Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen (the first non-American to leave LEO).

The quartet will spend 10 days in space, if all goes to plan. They will first test their Orion spacecraft in Earth orbit to see how it behaves with its first human crew, then make a trans-lunar injection maneuver to slingshot around the moon and back. Artemis 2 is designed to help lay the foundation for a crewed moon landing on Artemis 4, in 2028.

Koch is one of the four astronauts of Artemis 2, which is scheduled to launch on its round-the-moon mission no earlier than April 1. During her career as a NASA astronaut, she has spent more than 300 days aboard the International Space Station, and she performed the first all-woman spacewalk with Jessica Meir. Artemis 2 will make her the first woman ever to go beyond low Earth orbit (LEO).