04/17/2026
HISTORY MADE 🚀👩🚀🌕 Astronaut Christina Koch just became the first woman to venture into deep space and fly by moon while on NASA's Artemis II mission 💫
Koch was assigned the prestigious role of Mission Specialist I on Artemis II due to her extensive and record-breaking experience. In 2019, Koch served as a flight engineer on the International Space Station for 328 consecutive days, the longest single spaceflight completed by a woman. During her stay, she was also part of NASA’s first all-woman spacewalk 🪐
The naming behind the Artemis program is also a subtle nod to women's historic role in the mission: The first missions to take humans to the moon were called the Apollo program, named after the Greek god of the sun. In Greek mythology, Apollo has a twin sister named Artemis, the Greek goddess of the moon 🌜🌛
The Artemis II astronauts are the first humans to fly by the moon in more than 50 years and will serve as scientific ambassadors to our nearest neighbor. Today's flyby has also broken the record set by Apollo 13 for the furthest any human has ever ventured from Earth into space 🌌
Koch's historic flight signifies one giant leap in helping to close the gender gap for women in STEAM, and we're thrilled that the next generation of girls pursuing their dreams of space exploration don't just have to shoot for the stars—they can shoot for the moon now, too 🌕
Congratulations to Koch and the rest of the Artemis II crew! ✨
