SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The four Artemis II astronauts are now one day away from splashing down off the San Diego coast, concluding a lunar mission that has been years in the making.
ABC 10News' Max Goldwasser spoke with Artemis II astronaut Christina Koch back in April 2023 when she was in the early stages of preparing for this journey.
At the time, he was at another Scripps station in Grand Rapids, which is where Koch was born. Three years later, he's reminded why she is not just completing a mission, but a lifelong dream.
"I loved anything that made me feel small as a little girl. I loved staring into the night sky," Koch told him.
Parents tell their kids all the time to shoot for the stars, but for Koch, it was not just a figure of speech. For as long as she can remember, Koch wanted to be an astronaut.
"Never thought it would really happen, but made sure that I pursued my passions and one day hoped to be someone that could say I could contribute to human spaceflight," Koch said.
She is not just contributing, but making history by going farther from Earth than any human has ever gone before. The four-person Artemis crew traveled a quarter of a million miles away, flying around the moon’s far side and back.
"That's all part of a greater mission to go back to the lunar surface to stay in a sustained and responsible way, take the lessons we learned there and explore even farther to Mars, where we can search for life and answer some of the big questions," Koch said.
This trip sets the stage for Artemis III and IV, which will eventually return humans to the moon for the first time since 1972 — the last of the Apollo missions, which taught Koch to dream big.
"Thinking about the fact that we are a part of that legacy, that we are a part of building upon the roads that they blazed for us and hopefully can inspire future explorers, that's the part that sometimes you're not sure you fully have your head wrapped around it yet because it's so huge," Koch said.
Artemis II also made Koch the first woman to ever embark on a lunar mission, blazing a trail just like her heroes who came before her. She hopes her journey can guide the next generation whose shoes she once filled.
"What I found led me to fulfillment, contributing, and that is following your passions, doing what scares you, supporting those around you. If there's any message I can share, that would be the one," Koch said.
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