Nationality: USA
Inducted: 2026
Notable Record(s):
- Longest continuous time in space by a female astronaut
- First all-female spacewalk
An ICON because...
Long before she joined NASA as an electrical engineer, Michigan-born Christina Koch aimed for the stars.
As a kid, Christina followed NASA’s Space Shuttle missions and attended the prestigious Space Camp programme in Huntsville, Alabama.
Then, during her time as a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station (ISS) between 14 March 2019 and 6 February 2020, Christina made history. She achieved the longest continuous time in space by a female astronaut, spending a whopping 328 days, 13 hours and 58 minutes in space.
Her record-breaking streak continued and, in 2019, she joined Jessica Meir in the first all-female spacewalk EVER.
At the beginning of April 2026 Christina joined NASA’s Moon mission Artemis II, where Christina broke three more records. Not only she became the first woman to leave low-Earth orbit, but she also broke the women’s altitude record on her way to the crew’s new mark for the greatest distance from Earth – an astonishing 413,145 km (256,715 mi).
On 6 April 2026, the crews of Artemis II and China’s Tiangong space station briefly stood as the farthest separated humans ever: "just" 419,581 km (260,714 mi) apart!
