An astronaut with Michigan ties has blasted off on a major, historic space mission.

On Wednesday, Christina Hammock Koch, who was born in Grand Rapids and has relatives in the Grand Rapids area and often returned to the region as a youth, joins three other NASA astronauts on a 10-day flight around the moon.

The Artemis II crew launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at about 6:35 p.m. Wednesday in what is considered the most ambitious U.S. space mission in decades and a major step toward returning humans to the lunar surface before China’s first crewed landing.

Koch lifted off with Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

She will be the first woman to travel to the moon’s vicinity. Glover will be the Black astronaut to do so.

Who is Koch?

The 47-year-old made history in 2019 when she conducted the first all-woman spacewalk at the International Space Station. On Oct. 28, 2019, Koch spent more than seven hours suited up and exposed to the vacuum of space with astronaut Jessica Meir, who is at the outpost again as part of the Crew-12 mission.

Koch spent almost all of 2019 in space during her first and only mission yet, setting a record for the longest spaceflight for any American woman at 328 days. Just three other NASA astronauts have been on longer single missions than she has.

She grew up in North Carolina. Koch earned her master’s degree in physics and electrical engineering at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics and has also studied abroad at the University of Ghana, according to her biography.

Koch graduated from NASA’s Academy program at Goddard Space Flight Center in 2001.

Her career began as an electrical engineer at the center, where she contributed to scientific instruments on several NASA space science missions.

Koch eventually became a research associate in the United States Antarctic Program, which included work at the South Pole.

In 2013, Koch was selected among eight members of the 21st NASA astronaut class.

Later spending nearly 11 months aboard the International Space Station, she worked on efforts including a microgravity crystals investigation, which crystallizes a membrane protein that is integral to tumor growth and cancer survival.

After returning to Earth in 2020, Koch served in a rotational position as the NASA Johnson Space Center Director’s Assistant for Technical Integration.

She has lived in Montana and Texas. Her favorite activities include surfing, rock climbing, yoga, backpacking, photography and travel.

Michigan roots

Koch spent summers on the family farm in Michigan and has credited the lessons learned there for space travel prep. She regularly helped her grandparents there and at their market, Under the Pines, in Comstock Park, Koch’s aunt told The Detroit News in 2023.

“She’s just eager to work. She doesn’t pass the buck,” her aunt, Loretta Homrich, said at the time. “She was always there to help you if you needed anything. I think she learned quite well from her grandma and grandpa, and being on the farm with us gave her a lot of insight into what hard work was all about.”

Koch has also remained in touch with her relatives, even calling them from space.

“You would think she was sitting right next to you,” her uncle, Bill Homrich, told The News in 2023. “That was cool.”

What will Artemis II accomplish?

The crew has spent more than two years training for the mission since being named in 2023.

More: Who are the astronauts of NASA’s Artemis moon mission? Meet the crew

The current record for the farthest spaceflight at roughly 248,000 miles is held by the three-man crew of the Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970, which was beset by technical problems after an oxygen tank exploded and was unable to land on the moon as planned.

Humans have not left Earth’s orbit since the final Apollo mission in 1972.

Last year, Koch told Space.com the mission “feels like an incredible privilege and responsibility. As a crew, I feel like we consolidated really quickly. That’s just a set of values that we’ve all developed living in the astronaut corps for so many years, and so we felt crew-like very quickly.”