Montana’s Big Connections to Artemis II Moon Mission

If you haven't heard, the United States is currently in the middle of a mission to orbit the Moon for the first time in over 50 years.

The Artemis II mission launched on Wednesday featuring a four-person crew of Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen.

Montana's Brightest Minds Assist with Artemis II Moon Mission

With all of the excitement surrounding the mission back to the moon, it's easy to feel a little extra patriotic. It's even easier to feel prouder when you find out Montana has a few connections to the landmark mission.

For starters, Montanans can celebrate the fact that engineers Jeremiah Hall and Daniel Baca, both native Montanans, get to work on the Artemis II for NASA.

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According to Flathead Beacon, Baca, who attended Flathead Valley High School, earned bachelor’s degrees in mathematics, computer science and astrophysics before studying aerospace engineering in grad school at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he also met his wife - who also works on Artemis II.

Hall, who graduated from Whitefish High School, attended Montana State University where he majored in mechanical engineering before earning a master's degree studying aerospace at CU Boulder according to Flathead Beacon.

And it's not just engineers, an astronaut on the mission is also representing Big Sky Country.

An Artemis II Astronaut with Montana Connections

According to her biography on the official page for NASA, Artemis II Astronaut Christina Koch was living in Livingston, Montana when she was selected to join the Astronaut Corps.

She maintained connections to Montana, even speaking to Park High School in Livingston for 20 minutes while she was traveling 5 miles per second about 250 miles above Earth aboard the International Space Station back in 2019.

Back in 2023, Senator Steve Daines shared a Facebook post highlighting his meeting with Koch.

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"It’s not every day you meet a Montanan who’s going to space!", Daines said on his post from 2023.

"It was great to meet Christina Koch of Livingston, MT and the rest of the NASA Artemis II crew."

According to NASA, the Moon mission should be wrapped up by next week on April 10th.