Christina Koch during her campus visit earlier this year. (Photo by Becky Kirkland)
Three-time NC State graduate and NASA astronaut Christina Koch has been named the national space agency’s acting deputy chief engineer, elevating her to the ranks of management and ending her eligibility for future space flights.
Three-time NC State graduate and NASA astronaut Christina Koch has a new exploration project on the horizon: She’s just been named the national space agency’s acting deputy chief engineer, beginning Nov. 1.
Koch — who received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering, and a bachelor’s degree in physics, from NC State — will lead NASA’s engineering community, supporting technical oversight, mission readiness and engineering excellence throughout the agency’s programs and projects.
With the appointment, Koch will give up her active astronaut status for the new position of management astronaut. She will no longer be eligible for future spaceflight assignments, NASA said.
“Christina has seen NASA engineering from both sides of the equation: developing complex systems on the ground and trusting them with her life in space,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “After spending nearly a year living and working aboard the International Space Station and helping lead America back around the moon on Artemis II this year, she brings an extraordinary combination of technical expertise, operational experience and judgment to this role.
“I am excited to see the impact she will have across NASA as we return Americans to the lunar surface, build the Moon Base, get underway on nuclear power in space, and develop the capabilities that will ultimately take us on to Mars.”
Koch most recently served as a mission specialist aboard NASA’s Artemis II mission in April, helping carry out the first crewed flight around the Moon in more than 50 years. She previously spent 328 consecutive days aboard the International Space Station, setting the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman and participating in the first all-female spacewalks.
She returned to NC State in August to celebrate her journey around the moon with her Wolfpack family, at which time the university renamed its electrical engineering building on Centennial Campus Koch Hall and debuted a special-edition Howling Cow ice cream flavor in her honor.
Koch began her NASA career as an electrical engineer at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, developing scientific instruments for space missions. Before her selection as an astronaut in 2013, her experience also included scientific field engineering in Antarctica and the Arctic.
She has since held leadership positions within NASA’s Astronaut Office and at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, bringing a combination of technical expertise, operational experience, and firsthand understanding of the demands of human spaceflight to her new role.
Koch will replace Katherine Van Hooser, who is retiring after completing 35 years of distinguished service to NASA on Oct. 21.