Jan 30, 2026
Astronauts Are Going Back to the Moon for the First Time in Half a Century
TIME Magazine
Koch, 46, made her way to NASA via the South Pole. When she was a child, her dual fascinations were Antarctica and space, and the walls of her bedroom were covered with posters and maps of both. “If anyone within a country mile said the word Antarctica, I was all over it, asking, “How can I get there? When can I go?”” she says. Born in Grand Rapids, Mich., she relocated to North Carolina State University to study electrical engineering and physics. In 2002, with those twin degrees in her pocket, she went to work for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., assigned to a team designing spacecraft instruments.