Christina Koch – sailor, surfer, rock climber, electrical engineer, and the first woman astronaut ever assigned to a lunar mission – has seen the dark side of the moon.

And now, she’s on her way back from it.

The Artemis II mission’s historic lunar fly-by draws to a close today, with Koch and fellow astronauts Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Jeremy Hansen expected to land in the waters off San Diego at 20:07 eastern US time.

The mission, named for the goddess of the moon and the twin sister of Apollo, was the first human spaceflight to the moon in 53 years.

‘Together, we are ushering in a new era of exploration for a new generation of star sailors and dreamers – the Artemis Generation,’ says NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

But few may know that long before she went to space, accomplished astronaut Christina Koch was a sailor.

Christina Koch: from sailor to astronaut

Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch peers out of one of the Orion spacecraft’s main cabin windows, looking back at Earth, as the crew travels towards the Moon on April 4, 2026. Photo by NASA via Getty Images

Koch, a supporting ‘mission specialist’ in the Artemis II flight, has already accumulated several achievements in space.

She participated in the first all-female spacewalk in 2019, and holds the record for the longest continuous stretch of time spent in space by a woman– 328 days, the exact same it took Australian sailor Jesse Martin to complete his solo, nonstop, and unassisted circumnavigation in 1999 at just 18 years old.

With the Artemis II mission, she has also become the first woman assigned to a lunar mission.

In the 2000s, long before she ever stepped out of the stratosphere, Koch sailed on Snipes with the Severn Sailing Association and the Goddard Sailing Association, which offers NASA employees and families sailing opportunities in Chesapeake Bay.

She was a postgrad working for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland at the time.

‘Severn Sailing Association sailors may remember Christina from when she sailed Snipes with us a handful of years ago,’ the SSA posted on Facebook when news of Koch’s all-women spacewalk first circulated in 2019.

The Snipe, a 15ft American sailing dinghy, was designed by William F. Crosby in 1931 for one-design racing and has been named one of our World’s Coolest Boats.

An article published on the Baltimore Banner reports that Koch also frequented the Boatyard Bar & Grill, a sailor-favourite local establishment, which is now host to a flag of the Maritime Republic of Eastport she brought a mission to the South Pole.

After becoming an astronaut in 2013, Koch swapped sailing the seas for cruising through the night sky, though she never lost her passion for the water.

She continues to enjoy surfing when she’s on Earth and has even scouted surf spots from space, captioning a photo of the Gold Coast of Australia, ‘Just a little surf spot in the universe.’

The Artemis II Mission brought us the furthest ever from Earth

The Artemis II crew – (from left) Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Pilot Victor Glover, and Commander Reid Wiseman – pause for a group photo inside the Orion spacecraft on their way home. Photo by NASA via Getty Images

On the sixth day of the mission, the four history-making astronauts ventured 248,655 miles from Earth, the furthest any human has ever been.

That’s almost 150 times more remote than the Southern Ocean‘s famed Point Nemo, the most remote location on the planet.

The Artemis II mission’s historic lunar fly-by also included a solar eclipse, a 40-minute communication blackout, and a now-viral moment of the four astronauts meeting US President Donald Trump’s congratulations with… total silence.

‘Among the [Artemis-2] crew are the first woman, first person of colour, and first Canadian on a lunar mission, and all four astronauts will represent the best of humanity as they explore for the benefit of all,’ said Vanessa Wyche, director of Nasa’s Johnson Space Flight Center.

Previously, all lunar missions were undertaken by white men.

The ten-day Artemis II mission is the final step before the Artemis III mission, which aims to land astronauts on the moon in 2027.

If you enjoyed reading about sailor/austronaut Christina Koch….

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