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For North Carolina A&T State University junior Naya Shelvin, airplanes and the aerodynamics of flight had long shaped her vision of a future engineering career. But a conversation with NASA astronaut Christina Koch encouraged her to consider possibilities beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
Koch, a North Carolina native and member of NASA’s Artemis II crew, visited the College of Engineering on August 27, giving a small group of students an opportunity to hear firsthand about her path from engineering student to astronaut, her journey around the moon and the experiences that prepared her for spaceflight.
The event was held inside the Harold L. Martin Sr. Engineering Research and Innovation Complex and brought together students involved in aerospace- and rocketry-related programs. During an open discussion and question-and-answer session, Koch spoke about engineering, space exploration and the unconventional choices that helped shape her career.
Koch grew up in Jacksonville, N.C. and attended White Oak High School and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham. She later earned bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and physics and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from North Carolina State University.
NASA selected Koch as an astronaut in 2013. She went on to serve as a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station for three expeditions before returning to space on April 1, 2026 as a mission specialist aboard Artemis II.
The four-person crew spent nine days in space before returning to Earth on April 10. The flight marked the first time humans had traveled into deep space in more than 50 years.
Koch told students that reaching that point required her to follow her interests, even when those choices did not resemble a traditional route to becoming an astronaut. At one point, she left an engineering position at NASA to work at the South Pole for a year.
“So even though that wasn’t maybe on the conventional list of what you do to become an astronaut, it was on my list,” Koch said. “There was a lot of uncertainty along the way. But for me, it was about sitting with the person I am and imagining actually what was the life I imagined for myself as a little girl, and fulfilling that dream.”
Another formative experience came in 1999, when Koch studied abroad at the University of Ghana through an exchange program offered by N.C. State. She said she wanted to immerse herself in a culture different from her own while studying in an English-speaking country.
“Growing up in the South, I was interested in the relationship between West Africa and the South, and the United States, the diaspora, and how that all fit into my life,” Koch said. “And so, it was the perfect place.”
The experience challenged assumptions she had made about the world, her relationships with other people and her own goals, she said.
“It really was the first time where my mind was blown by a perspective change,” Koch said. “I would not be the same without that experience.”
That willingness to question assumptions remains important in her work as an engineer, Koch added.
“Sometimes we make assumptions about the constraints and the problem we’re trying to solve that we don’t even realize we’re making,” she said.
Students were especially interested in Koch’s Artemis II experience, including what it was like to return to Earth at extreme speed. Koch explained that the spacecraft had to enter the atmosphere at a precise angle and location to reach its designated landing area in the ocean.
While people often ask astronauts about the launch, Koch said reentry was the more intense part of the mission.
“It is so hard,” she said. “On reentry, you turn into an actual fireball, and you cannot communicate outside of this fireball. It is the wildest ride.”
She compared the spacecraft’s shape during its return to “this little Hershey kiss” traveling through the atmosphere at full speed.
Koch also described seeing the moon up close, including the far side that is never visible from Earth. Its unfamiliar terrain made something she had seen throughout her life suddenly appear entirely new.
“It was like seeing a secret garden,” Koch said. “We only see this one side, as if it’s a picture painted in the night sky, but it actually is this orbital body.”
The far side, she explained, had fewer dark areas than the side visible from Earth.
“You’re seeing it for the first time and you’re so close to it, you just want to go walking on it,” Koch said. “It’s just calling you.”
For Shelvin, an honors mechanical engineering major concentrating in aerospace engineering, the conversation opened a new area of interest. Shelvin also serves as president of A&T’s chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
“This was an amazing opportunity,” Shelvin said. “I’ve never really considered doing astronautics. I’ve always been very interested in airplanes and the aerodynamics of flight, but hearing about her experiences in space and also her perspective about starting from a research level and then studying abroad, I am finding astronautics so much more interesting.”
Shelvin said she now looks forward to learning more at A&T about how aerodynamics extends beyond Earth’s atmosphere, a possibility that appeared a little closer after meeting someone who had experienced it firsthand.
