October 16, 2019 at 06:19AM
A Jacksonville native will soon embark on the first all-female spacewalk in NASA history.
Later this week, Jacksonville's Christina Hammock Koch and fellow astronaut Jessica Meir will work on replacing the existing nickel-hydrogen batteries on the Port-6 truss structure at the International Space Station with newer, more powerful, lithium-ion batteries.
The walk was originally scheduled for Monday, but NASA officials announced Tuesday the walk will now take place at 7:50 a.m. on Oct. 17 or Oct. 18. Live coverage begins at 6:30 a.m. at nasa.gov/nasalive.
The first all-female spacewalk was originally supposed to take place in March with Koch and NASA astronaut Anne McClain, but it had to be postponed when properly fitting spacesuits weren't ready in time.
Koch attended Infant of Prague Catholic School and White Oak High School before graduating from the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, The Daily News reported.
"It's a great role model for females in professions that are predominantly male," said Koch's former cheerleading coach and White Oak science teacher Tanya Larose.
Koch earned bachelor's degrees in electrical engineering and physics, and a master's degree in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University, according to NASA's website. She started her career as an electrical engineer focusing on space science instrument design at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; worked as a research associate with the United States Antarctic Program, completing several deployments including spending the winter at the South Pole; and returned to space science instrument design at the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, contributing to such missions as the Juno probe to Jupiter.
According to NASA, Koch worked at remote scientific research stations, including sessions as a field engineer in the Arctic and as station chief with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in American Samoa.
NASA spokesperson Stephanie Schierholz said Koch is expected to stay in space until February — a grand total of 11 months. If she does so, she will have broken the record for the longest space flight by a woman on top of earning the distinction of being on the first all-female spacewalk.
"She is having an extended long duration mission to help us understand what happens to the human body in space," Schierholz said.
Her first spacewalk was March 29. This week's walk will be her fourth, according to NASA.
For Larose, the success of her former cheerleader is not surprising.
"She was so physically fit but she was always focused," Larose said.
While Larose did not have Koch as a student, she said she had discussed Koch with retired science teacher Pat Long.
"My mentor Ms. Long … taught her chemistry and was just impressed with her focus then, too," Larose said.
According to Larose, a few teachers at the school put on the first live stream of Koch and her colleagues at the ISS. Larose herself had been displaced, because Hurricane Florence destroyed her classroom, but she went to other science teachers' classrooms and watched Koch and the other astronauts.
The teachers at WOHS will likely do the same this time around as well, Larose said. She added that she hoped the example would inspire her students — especially female students.
"They're about to do the (first) female spacewalk," Larose said of Koch and Meir. "She walked these halls of White Oak High School, she wore green and gold … There is a Viking right now in the International Space Station."
Reporter Maxim Tamarov can be reached at 910-219-8439 or mtamarov@jdnews.com. For digital subscription information, click here.
A Jacksonville native will soon embark on the first all-female spacewalk in NASA history.
Later this week, Jacksonville's Christina Hammock Koch and fellow astronaut Jessica Meir will work on replacing the existing nickel-hydrogen batteries on the Port-6 truss structure at the International Space Station with newer, more powerful, lithium-ion batteries.
The walk was originally scheduled for Monday, but NASA officials announced Tuesday the walk will now take place at 7:50 a.m. on Oct. 17 or Oct. 18. Live coverage begins at 6:30 a.m. at nasa.gov/nasalive.
The first all-female spacewalk was originally supposed to take place in March with Koch and NASA astronaut Anne McClain, but it had to be postponed when properly fitting spacesuits weren't ready in time.
Koch attended Infant of Prague Catholic School and White Oak High School before graduating from the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, The Daily News reported.
"It's a great role model for females in professions that are predominantly male," said Koch's former cheerleading coach and White Oak science teacher Tanya Larose.
Koch earned bachelor's degrees in electrical engineering and physics, and a master's degree in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University, according to NASA's website. She started her career as an electrical engineer focusing on space science instrument design at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; worked as a research associate with the United States Antarctic Program, completing several deployments including spending the winter at the South Pole; and returned to space science instrument design at the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, contributing to such missions as the Juno probe to Jupiter.
According to NASA, Koch worked at remote scientific research stations, including sessions as a field engineer in the Arctic and as station chief with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in American Samoa.
NASA spokesperson Stephanie Schierholz said Koch is expected to stay in space until February — a grand total of 11 months. If she does so, she will have broken the record for the longest space flight by a woman on top of earning the distinction of being on the first all-female spacewalk.
"She is having an extended long duration mission to help us understand what happens to the human body in space," Schierholz said.
Her first spacewalk was March 29. This week's walk will be her fourth, according to NASA.
For Larose, the success of her former cheerleader is not surprising.
"She was so physically fit but she was always focused," Larose said.
While Larose did not have Koch as a student, she said she had discussed Koch with retired science teacher Pat Long.
"My mentor Ms. Long … taught her chemistry and was just impressed with her focus then, too," Larose said.
According to Larose, a few teachers at the school put on the first live stream of Koch and her colleagues at the ISS. Larose herself had been displaced, because Hurricane Florence destroyed her classroom, but she went to other science teachers' classrooms and watched Koch and the other astronauts.
The teachers at WOHS will likely do the same this time around as well, Larose said. She added that she hoped the example would inspire her students — especially female students.
"They're about to do the (first) female spacewalk," Larose said of Koch and Meir. "She walked these halls of White Oak High School, she wore green and gold … There is a Viking right now in the International Space Station."
Reporter Maxim Tamarov can be reached at 910-219-8439 or mtamarov@jdnews.com. For digital subscription information, click here.