Christina Hammock Koch

Christina Marie Hammock was born in 1979 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the daughter of Ronald Mack and Barbara Ann (Homrich) Hammock. Her parents were married in 1978 in Grand Rapids, Michigan:

 

The Grand Rapids Press, 18 February 1978: “Miss Barbara Ann Homrich and Dr. Ronald Mack Hammock of Grand Rapids were united in marriage Saturday afternoon in Holy Trinity Church. Parents of the couple are Mr. and Mrs. Walter C. Homrich of Comstock Park and Mrs. Ruby Hammock of Westland. Matron of honor was Mrs. Beth Jammal. Bridesmaids were Miss Barbara Christ, Mrs. Wendy Morrison, Mrs. Teresa Roderick, Miss Denise Hammock and Miss Doris Hammock. Best man was Dr. John Walker. Groomsmen were Michael, William, David and James Homrich and Dr. Jack Dekkinga. The reception was held in the Casino Club Hall. The couple will reside in Grand Rapids.”

 

In 1950, Ronald Hammock and his family were living in Tennessee. Barbara’s parents Walter and Dolores Homrich were both born and died in Kent County, Michigan; thus it is the maternal side of Christina’s family that has a long-standing connection to West Michigan. 

 

By 1985, when Christina’s younger brother Robert James Hammock was born, the Hammock family was living in Onslow County, North Carolina.

 

Ronald and Barbara Hammock were divorced in 1997 in North Carolina. According to Wikipedia, “[Christina] Koch's childhood dream was to become an astronaut. In 1999 she went on an Exchange program with the University of Ghana Legon where she studied astrophysics. Koch graduated from the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham in 1997, and then enrolled at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, from which she earned two Bachelor of Science degrees, in electrical engineering and physics (2001), and a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering (2002). In 2001, she became a graduate of the NASA Academy program at the Goddard Space Flight Center.” Christina was named Astronaut Scholar, Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, 2000 to 2001.

 

Christina was registered to vote in Winter Park, Orange County, Florida in 2004. Again according to Wikipedia, “Koch has worked in the space science instrument development and remote scientific field engineering fields. During her time working as an electrical engineer at NASA GSFC's Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics, she contributed to scientific instruments on several NASA missions that studied astrophysics and cosmology. During this time, she also served as Adjunct Faculty at Montgomery College in Maryland and led a Physics Laboratory course. Koch worked as a Research Associate in the United States Antarctic Program from 2004 to 2007, spending three-and-a-half years traveling the Arctic and Antarctic regions. She completed a winter-over season at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station where she experienced minus-111 degree Fahrenheit (-79.4 C) temperatures. She completed an additional season at Palmer Station. While in Antarctica, Koch served as a member of the Firefighting Teams and Ocean/Glacier Search and Rescue Teams. She has described her time in the South Pole as challenging mentally and physically: "[This] means going months without seeing the sun, with the same crew, and without shipments of mail or fresh food. The isolation, absence of family and friends, and lack of new sensory inputs are all conditions that you must find a strategy to thrive within."

 

From 2007 to 2009, Koch worked as an Electrical Engineer in the Space Department of the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University focusing on space science instrument development. She contributed to instruments studying radiation particles for NASA missions, including the Juno and Van Allen Probes. The following year, Koch completed tours of Palmer Station in Antarctica and multiple winter seasons at Summit Station in Greenland. In 2012, she worked at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in two capacities: first as a Field Engineer at NOAA's Global Monitoring Division Baseline Observatory in Barrow Alaska (now Utqiaġvik), and then as Station Chief of the American Samoa Observatory. Koch graduated from the NASA Academy program at GSFC in 2001. She worked as an Electrical Engineer in the Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics at GSFC from 2002 to 2004. In June 2013, Koch was selected by NASA as part of Astronaut Group 21. She completed training in July 2015, making her available for future missions. Her Astronaut Candidate Training included scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in International Space Station systems, spacewalks, robotics, physiological training, T-38 flight training, and water and wilderness survival training.”

 

“Koch has earned a number of awards during her tenure at NASA and Johns Hopkins, including the NASA Group Achievement Award, NASA Juno Mission Jupiter Energetic Particle Detector Instrument, 2012; Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Invention of the Year nominee, 2009; United States Congress Antarctic Service Medal with Winter-Over distinction, 2005; NASA Group Achievement Award, NASA Suzaku Mission X-ray Spectrometer Instrument, 2005.”

 

Christina Hammock was married in 2015 in Galveston, Texas to Robert V. Koch. Her Wikipedia article tells: “On March 14, 2019, Koch launched to the International Space Station on Soyuz MS-12, alongside Aleksey Ovchinin and Nick Hague, to join the Expedition 59/60/61 crew. Koch was scheduled to perform her first EVA on March 29; this would have been the first all-female spacewalk alongside Anne McClain, but spacesuit sizing issues resulted in it being reassigned from McClain to Hague. Koch performed the first all-female spacewalk with Jessica Meir on October 18, as part of a lengthy series of upgrades to the ISS' power systems and physics observatories. Koch and Meir followed the historic walk with two more female team walks in January 2020. On April 17, 2019, due to reassignment schedules with the Commercial Crew Development program, Koch's mission was extended to February 2020. She returned to Earth on February 6 after 328 days – the longest single continuous stay in space for a woman, exceeding Peggy Whitson's 289 days. In addition, for a first-time astronaut, this NASA mission change has never happened before. Koch's extended mission is being used to study the physical, biological, and mental effects of long-term space travel on women. While on this mission Koch made the first edit to Wikipedia from space. Koch was selected as one of the crew members for NASA's Artemis program. On April 3, 2023, she was announced as a mission specialist in the Artemis II crew, which launched at 22:35 UTC on April 1, 2026, and is planned to fly by the moon on April 6, 2026, traveling 6,400 miles beyond the Moon's far side before returning to Earth. She is the first woman to leave low Earth orbit, and she will be the first woman to travel near the Moon. She is joined by NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.”