Cooper, astronaut Christina Koch visit NC A&T to talk importance of public education — and dreams

To better make his case, Cooper brought along Koch to talk about how her experiences in the North Carolina public education system helped prepare her for a career at NASA.

"In some ways, it has been everything that's prepared me," Koch said.

Astronaut Christina Koch shows A&T students an image of North Carolina she captured from the International Space Station

Koch, who grew up in Jacksonville, said she's always wanted to be an astronaut.

"I actually don't remember a time when I didn't want to be an astronaut," Koch said. "All I know is from the time I was little, I was telling my teachers and my mom that I wanted to be an astronaut and I just never grew out of it."

Koch also credits teachers throughout her life for supporting her dream.

"I think all the time how lucky I was that no one discouraged me," Koch said. "People all encouraged me to follow that dream and that in and of itself has been life-changing for me."

After attending White Oak High School in Jacksonville and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham, Koch would head to N.C. State and pursue degrees in electrical engineering and physics.

"I remember sitting in front of the blank pages of my physics problem sets and being like, 'There's no way I'm going to get to the end of this,'" Koch recalled.

But she did get to the end.

And that led to a new beginning: In 2013, Koch would be selected as a NASA astronaut. She holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman with a total of 328 days in space.

She said her favorite thing about working at the International Space Station, where she was a flight engineer, was conducting experiments. In particular, she highlighted helping to grow protein crystals in space that can't form naturally on Earth.

"We helped researchers on Earth see protein crystals grow for the first time that may have implications in pharmaceuticals to combat cancer, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's — all these different things," Koch explained. "I got to watch at the same time as the people on the ground these crystals forming. It was really a special part of the science I did."

The next step in Koch's cosmic career is serving as a crew member for NASA's Artemis II mission set to launch in 2025 at the earliest.

"The plan for Artemis II is to go around the moon and come back and not necessarily land because we're testing out all the new systems," Koch said. "The whole idea is that we're leading up to going back to the surface of the moon."

Koch said the one of the biggest reasons to explore space isn't to learn about the places we're going, but to learn about ourselves.

"No one who goes to space brings a bag of gold with them. They bring pictures of their family," Koch said. "We learn through leaving our home planet that we're more alike than we are different."

Koch also implored A&T students in the audience to keep working hard because the opportunities for space exploration are almost as endless as the cosmos.

"It's not a question of if we go; it's when we go," Koch said.

Cooper added that the success of A&T's STEM programs all but guaranteed opportunities for science and engineering majors in the room — and not just those interested in aerospace.

"When I can say that North Carolina A&T University graduates more Black engineers than any other university in the country every year, people's eyes light up," Cooper said. "Businesses say (they) want a well-trained, dedicated and diverse workforce, and this is a place for us to come."

Gov. Roy Cooper and NASA Astronaut Christina Koch chat after a question-and-answer session in the Harold L. Martin Sr. Engineering Research and Innovation Complex on the North Carolina A&T campus in Greensboro on Tuesday.

NASA Astronaut Christina Koch answers questions from students in the Harold L. Martin Sr. Engineering Research and Innovation Complex on the North Carolina A&T campus in Greensboro on Tuesday.

Gov. Roy Cooper answers questions from students in the Harold L. Martin Sr. Engineering Research and Innovation Complex on the North Carolina A&T campus in Greensboro on Tuesday.

Gov. Roy Cooper answers questions from students in the Harold L. Martin Sr. Engineering Research and Innovation Complex on the North Carolina A&T campus in Greensboro on Tuesday.

NASA Astronaut Christina Koch waves to students as she arrives in a classroom in the Harold L. Martin Sr. Engineering Research and Innovation Complex on the North Carolina A&T campus in Greensboro on Tuesday.

NASA Astronaut Christina Koch and Gov. Roy Cooper visit a lab in the Harold L. Martin Sr. Engineering Research and Innovation Complex on the North Carolina A&T campus in Greensboro on Tuesday.

NASA Astronaut Christina Koch gives a short presentation to students and faculty in the Harold L. Martin Sr. Engineering Research and Innovation Complex on the North Carolina A&T campus in Greensboro on Tuesday.

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