GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — So many kids dream of one day becoming an astronaut.
Christina Koch was one of those kids.
"I have always wanted to be an astronaut for as long as I can remember," Koch told FOX 17. "I actually can't even say when it started. I think I was just a kid that wanted to be an astronaut and never grew out of it."
Few are able to live out that dream. You couldn't tell a young Koch that, though.
"I think I was drawn to the idea of being fascinated by space because I loved anything that made me feel small," she said. "As a little girl, I loved staring into the night sky. I can remember being on my family farm just north of Grand Rapids and looking up at all those stars, and just even as a kid thinking about what that meant (for our) place in the universe.”
Against all odds, that little girl gazing at the stars on her family farm is now making history with NASA once again.
“Never thought it would really happen, but made sure that I pursued my passions and one day hope to be someone that could say 'I could contribute to human spaceflight,'" Koch said.
Koch is one of four people selected for NASA's Artemis II mission. She's the only woman on the crew, making her the first woman to be assigned to a lunar mission.
Koch is the Mission Specialist for Artemis II, which will also be the first to take humans near the moon's surface in more than 50 years.
"That's all part of a greater mission to go back to the lunar surface, to stay in a sustained and responsible way," Koch said. "Take the lessons we learn there and explore even farther to Mars, where we can search for life and answer some of the big questions."
One of those big questions — "Are we alone?"
"I think, at this point, we don't have evidence necessarily, but when I look out on the vastness of space, from the space station, even from Earth, I see so many different stars, knowing each one of those stars might be another galaxy with many, many more stars and planets...It's hard to imagine a universe where we are alone," she said. "But, I think that answering that question, and actually the human desire to answer that question, is a really exciting thing. We've come to the time where we have the technology to start actually answering that question.”
The Artemis II mission has a target launch date of November 2024. It will be a 10-day trip, flying a quarter-of-a-million miles around the moon and back.
Koch hopes this mission not only advances the human understanding of space but also inspires the next generation of young astronauts, who share the dream she once had as a child.
"It's really a dream to potentially be an inspiration for future explorers, just like those that have inspired me," Koch said. "People that I could relate to doing brave things was something I found inspiration in, starting with my grandmother in working on the farm and running the place back in Grand Rapids, all the way through to the heroes of the space program.”
She continued, "Recognizing that maybe I could be that for more people is a huge responsibility. I just try to share what I found led me to fulfillment, and that is following your passions, doing what scares you, supporting those around you. If there's any message I can share, that would be the one."