First, she reached for the stars. Then she became one, crushing the glass ceiling as she broke free of the pull of Earth’s gravity.

Christina Hammock Koch, NASA astronaut and NC State-educated engineer, and her Artemis II crewmates flew farther from Earth’s bounds than anyone in human history, a 10-day trip in April that marked humanity’s return to lunar orbit for the first time in more than half a century.

In doing so, she became the brightest orb in the Wolfpack’s universe and the first woman to slingshot around the moon. Next week, she will share her experiences with students, faculty and staff of her alma mater during a two-day visit to campus, returning to the place that launched the out-of-this world dream that first popped into her head at the age of 5.

Koch, who earned three degrees during her five years at NC State, has spent the summer learning just how big an impact that 10-day lunar flyby mission has made on a world longing for a cause to rally around.

In television, podcast and public appearances, Koch has tried to fulfill her role as an explorer and interpreter, putting into words the incredible sights she and crewmates Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen saw from the window of the Orion spacecraft, just as she did when was assigned to cover the North Carolina State Fair as a student photographer at Technician.

She’s tried to explain what it was like to be in the most remote place humanity has ever traveled to, just as she did on her NC State study-abroad trip to Ghana or her NASA assignments to the South Pole, American Samoa and her record-shattering stay on the International Space Station.

It hasn’t all been easy. She had to learn to walk for the third time, regaining a tenuous foothold that she first mastered as a toddler, then again after her 328 days on the ISS from 2020 to 2021.

In Houston, at her first public appearance after the Artemis mission, she shared the abiding thing she learned about being part of a crew. Not just a team, not just a group, but a crew that included all of the support personnel at NASA and everyone on her home planet who exuded unseen support.

“A crew is a group that is … stroking together every minute no matter what, that is willing to sacrifice silently for each other, that gives grace that holds us accountable,” she said at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. “A crew has the same cares and same needs. A crew is inescapably, beautifully, dutifully linked.”

That insight is the most essential component of a journey that took Artemis II’s Orion spacecraft deeper into the universe than anyone has ever traveled, far away from the little blue-and-green lifeboat surrounded by unending darkness. They were cramped in the tiny vehicle, no bigger than a small camper, and never out of arms reach from each other.

“When we saw tiny Earth, people asked our crew what impressions we had,” she said. “Honestly, what struck me was not just Earth. It was all the blackness around it. Earth was just this lifeboat hanging, undisturbed in the universe.

“I may have not learned everything that this journey has yet to teach me, but there’s one new thing I know, and that is: Planet Earth. You. Are. A. Crew.”

It’s much like being part of a Wolfpack, as she will emphasize during her visit to campus next week.

That historic visit will be the latest part of the educational tour that began soon after splashdown.

In May, she joined North Carolina’s favorite fictional son, Opie Taylor (a.k.a. Apollo 13 director Ron Howard), as part of a panel discussion with the crew and an audience of young students on CBS News to talk about space travel.

In June, she took some personal leave to be with her husband, Bob Koch, and their rescue dog Sadie. During a trip to her husband’s favorite city of Philadelphia, she joined a broadcast of the Philadelphia Phillies and talked to legendary former Major League player John Kruk about eating rice pudding, drinking beer in space and having vodka as a substitute. (She only had one of the three.)

“I may have not learned everything that this journey has yet to teach me, but there’s one new thing I know, and that is: Planet Earth. You. Are. A. Crew.”

In July, the full crew traveled to Noordwijk, the Netherlands, to thank engineers at the European Space Agency for their contributions to the successful mission. She was also given Spain’s Princess of Asturias Award for Concord, for representing “humanity’s ability to overcome challenges and adversity through hard work, collaboration, and empathy.”

Earlier this month, she and Wisemen spent time with school-aged students at the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas, to talk about their mission. She shared her now-familiar messages of doing what scares you, turning fear into focus and supporting those around you.

Nothing brought her back to Earth, however, more than returning to the home she shares with Rob and Sadie in Galveston, Texas, to complete an appliance repair that began before Artemis II even blasted off. Just as she had done with the balky toilet on the first three days of her moon mission, Koch used her engineering skills to fix the family’s washing machine in their cramped little laundry room.

It was just like being back in the little spaceship that took her a half-million miles around the moon.

“I was just happy for the chance to be in a small space again fixing something,” she said in a time-lapse Instagram video of the repair.

Next week, she’ll be in the wide-open space of Centennial Campus’ Oval, celebrated by the school where her little-girl dream took a giant leap toward becoming a reality.