Standing in an elementary school gymnasium, crowded with cheering students — some of whom were experiencing their first day of school ever — Artemis II Mission Specialist Christina Koch asked her eager audience if they ever look up and see the stars in the sky.
“How does that make you feel?” she asked students at Durham’s Little River Montessori Elementary School, home of the Beavers. “Do you want to go fly among the stars and explore other places? How about the moon? Does anyone want to be a Little Beaver astronaut and go to the moon?”
Children’s hands shot up into the air, others shouted out their answers, to which Koch just smiled and said, “I think that it just might be possible one day.”
Koch — a NASA astronaut and engineer — is also “Aunt Tina” to one of the students in Katherine McGonnell’s pre-K class at Little River…