GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Signed photographs from Artemis II astronaut Christina Koch, a Grand Rapids, Mich., native, arrived at the Grand Rapids Public Museum on Wednesday morning, Oct. 7, a donation sent from NASA’s Johnson Space Center as a thank-you to her hometown.
In a note written on one of the photos, Koch credited hard work and curiosity with guiding her from the fields of Sparta to the far side of the moon.
Museum visitors can already see one of Koch’s uniforms in the museum’s veterans display, which traces stories of service to the United States back to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The display was created with the Michigan Heroes Museum, which loaned several artifacts, including the uniform.
Koch served as a mission specialist on NASA’s Artemis II mission, which launched at 6:35 p.m. EDT on April 1, 2026, from Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Its four astronauts became the first crew to travel to the moon in more than 50 years. The crew splashed down off the coast of San Diego on April 10 after a nearly 10-day journey that took them 252,756 miles from home at their farthest point.
It was her second spaceflight. Koch, selected as a NASA astronaut in 2013, earlier served as a flight engineer on the International Space Station for Expeditions 59, 60 and 61. She set the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, 328 days, and took part in the first all-female spacewalk.
Growing up in West Michigan, Koch worked the cash register and pulled weeds at Under the Pines Farm in Comstock Park.
