NASA astronaut Christina Koch will visit North Carolina State University, her alma mater, this week.
Koch, who became the first woman to leave low Earth orbit and the first woman to travel to and around the moon, will visit N.C. State on Aug. 24-25. The event is called “Around the Moon and Pack Again.”
On Monday, the public is invited to welcome Koch to Raleigh with a celebration at The Oval on Centennial
Campus, located at 950 Oval Drive, from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Koch will then spend an hour answering questions during a media availability between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. at Duke Energy Hall. WRAL meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner will be there.
The event will be livestreamed for those who can’t attend.
On Tuesday, Koch will attend private
events for students and faculty across campus, including a “student-led conversation about wellness, grit and self-trust” and a presentation about higher education with NC State’s chancellor. A list of those events can be found online.
Both of Tuesday’s events are closed to the public, but they will also be livestreamed.
Koch, an NC State alumna, was part of the Artemis II mission in April, which saw her and three other astronauts leave Earth to travel around the moon. It was the first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit since 1972, which was the final mission of NASA’s Apollo program.
Koch herself made history on the trip, becoming the first woman to leave low Earth orbit and the first woman to travel to and around the moon.