Christina Koch, the NASA astronaut who flew on the historic Artemis II mission, has a low-tech method for recovering from spaceflight: unplug and write. After returning from a 10-day journey around the moon, Koch says she stepped away from screens and turned to journaling to preserve her memories.
“I spent that first week journaling about the mission without looking at any photos from the mission,” Koch said during a recent visit to her alma mater, North Carolina State University, where an engineering building was named in her honor. “I knew that, one day, the photos might define my memories, but initially, it was important to remember things as they were [with] fresh memories.”
Koch explained that she “kept the blinders on” for the first two weeks after landing. “The biggest fear I had when I landed was that I would forget it all so quickly,” she said. Any emails sent to her between April 1 and April 10 remain unread. “I think people understand there might be a reason why,” she added with a laugh.
A Record-Breaking Trip Beyond the Moon
The Artemis II mission launched in early April, carrying Koch alongside commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and Canadian mission specialist Jeremy Hansen. The crew traveled beyond the far side of the moon and back over 10 days, becoming the first astronauts to reach that distance in more than 50 years.
The mission set several records. The crew traveled over 700,000 miles total, surpassing the distance record held by Apollo 13. Koch became the first woman to travel beyond low Earth orbit, Glover became the first Black person to do so, and Hansen became the first Canadian. Koch already held the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, set during her 2019 stint aboard the International Space Station, and she participated in the first all-female spacewalk.
Photos That Captured the World’s Attention
The images captured during Artemis II, shot on off-the-shelf iPhones and Nikon cameras, became the way the public experienced the mission. More than 18 million people watched the crew’s launch, and the photos and live TV appearances spread widely in a moment that came to be called “Moon Joy.”
One of the most widely shared images shows Koch looking out an Orion spacecraft window, with Earth appearing as a bright expanse of blue and green behind her. The photo went viral and became a rallying point for women pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and math, or STEM.
Koch waited a few weeks before viewing the photos herself. By then, many of the images were already famous around the world. Reflecting on the return to daily life, she compared it to a military deployment. “Reintegrating to Earth is a process, physical and mental,” she said. “You’re coming back and, in some cases, coming into a routine [that] has gone ahead without you.”
Koch says being a role model is now a significant part of her job, and she came home to numerous congratulatory text messages after the mission concluded.
