WASHINGTON — NASA astronaut Christina Koch is concluding her active spaceflight career to take over as the agency’s acting deputy chief engineer, NASA announced.
Koch will assume her new post on Nov. 1, succeeding Katherine Van Hooser, who is set to retire Oct. 21 after dedicating over 35 years of service to NASA. The appointment shifts Koch to management astronaut status, meaning she will no longer be eligible for future spaceflight assignments, according to reports by TalkOfTitusville.com and WRAL.
Transition to Agency Leadership
In her new leadership position, Koch will help guide the agency’s engineering workforce while providing technical oversight and ensuring mission readiness across NASA programs, the agency stated. Her responsibilities will encompass both crewed and robotic endeavors as NASA advances efforts to land humans on the Moon, construct a lunar base, develop nuclear power for space and prepare missions bound for Mars.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman highlighted Koch’s distinct perspective in a statement, noting she has developed intricate systems on the ground and relied on them for survival while in space. Amit Kshatriya, NASA associate administrator and chief engineer, praised Van Hooser for guiding the engineering community through critical agency milestones and expressed confidence in Koch’s ability to maintain technical excellence.
A Record-Setting Flight Career
Koch’s transition out of the flight rotation comes six months after she flew as a mission specialist on Artemis II, the first crewed flight around the Moon in more than 50 years. Alongside crewmates Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen, Koch flew farther from Earth than any previous space travelers, establishing her as the highest-flying woman in history. With Koch’s transition to management status, all four Artemis II astronauts are now retired from flight status, TalkOfTitusville.com reported.
Over her flight career, Koch accumulated roughly 337 days and 15.5 hours in space and traveled about 140 million miles. Her spaceflight record includes:
- Spending 328 consecutive days on the International Space Station from 2019 to 2020, setting the record for the longest single space mission by a woman.
- Conducting the first all-female spacewalks alongside NASA astronaut Jessica Meir.
- Supporting hundreds of scientific investigations spanning biology, human research, physical science and technology development while in orbit.
Engineering Roots
Before becoming an astronaut in 2013, Koch earned two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University. She began working at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland developing instruments for spaceflights, later contributed to projects at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, and carried out scientific field engineering during expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctica.
Next up on Koch’s schedule is a trip to Spain, where she will accept the Princess of Asturias Award for Concord on Oct. 23, El Mundo America reported. Van Hooser will officially conclude her NASA career on Oct. 21, leaving Koch to formally take on technical leadership at headquarters at the start of November.
