NC State University students on Wednesday watch a historic moment: one of their own heading to space for NASA's first moon mission in more than 50 years.
A watch party at NC State's Talley Student Union celebrated Christina Koch's flight to the moon this afternoon. Among those attending is her former academic advisor.
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"We are very excited for the launch," said Peter Tolman with NC State's High Powered Rocketry Club. "We have actually met Christina Koch in her club before. In the past, she's come to some of the outreach events we've done."
The watch party began around 5:30 p.m. with students cheering in front of the Pavillion TV on the first floor of the student union as the Artemis II rocket carrying her and three other astronauts lifted off around an hour later.
"I was speechless," said Haley Friar, a student at NC State. "It was also so cool to be surrounded by other students who are interested in them and just to be all togetehr to watch a cool moment in history."
Saeda Yoxtheimer, a sophomore at NC State studying electrical engineering, said her and her brother had been following Kock "for ages" and couldn't wait to show their support on Wednesday.
"We built the Artemis LEGO set, so we thought this was a really cool momment and just to look forward to seeing the first moon attempt in almost 50 years," Yoxtheimer said.
Who is Christina Koch, and what are her connections to NC State?
Koch grew up in Jacksonville, North Carolina and attended the North Carolina School of Science and Math before she became a three-time graduate at NC State University.
Dr. Stephen Reynolds is a professor emeritus of Physics who oversaw Christina Koch when she was an undergraduate from 1999-2002.
"It's just absolutely spectacular," Reynolds said. "It was clear she was heading for great things and it's just been one great thing after another."
Reynolds was first introduced to Koch--then Christina Hammock--by another instructor who told him about the incredibly enthusiastic young woman they had in their class.
"Not long after that, I became Christina's advisor and she was just the most energetic, cheerful and motivated young woman. She had enormous self-confidence but not in any kind of offensive way. She was really good. She was friends with other students, just amazingly energetic and involved in many things," Reynolds said.
Koch is making history as the first woman on a moon mission on Wednesday aboard NASA’s Artemis II mission. But she also set another record earlier in her career.
Koch spent 328 days in space from 2019 to 2020, setting the record for the longest continuous spaceflight by a woman and participating in the first all-woman spacewalk.
Reynolds wrote a letter of recommendation for her around 1999. It was around that same time he learned about her ambitions for a career in space.
"I thought, yeah well that's nice. I mean, every parent's child wants to be an astronaut. So you know, you pat them on the head and say, yeah go. You go, girl. Well, she went. So it's been a trip ever since," Reynolds said.
The odds are low for anyone to become a NASA astronaut.
When NASA selected applications in 2024, more than 8,000 people applied. Ten were selected as candidates. Just 370 people have been selected for the job since 1959.
Reynolds kept up with Koch's career after she graduated from NC State. First, she worked as an electrical engineer at Goddard Space Flight Center. Later, she did research in Antarctica, Greenland and the South Pacific.
"I thought well, this is all working out very, very nicely. Then, bam. She was an astronaut," Reynolds said.
He last spoke to Koch via video message the last time she was in orbit. During her 328-day voyage aboard the International Space Station in 2019, her sister included a message from Reynolds in a clip to celebrate Koch passing the 100-day milestone.
Reynolds said while the odds remain long for aspiring space travelers, Koch has become an example he and his colleagues can point to when encouraging NC State physics majors.
"She worked amazingly hard. She was a simultaneous major in electrical engineering, so she got two electrical engineering degrees at the same time she was getting one in physics. It's just staggering what she was able to accomplish and that she had absolute faith in herself that she could get it done," Reynolds said.