Crew Ends Week with Spacesuit Checks and Science, Lab Hardware Maintenance - NASA (.gov)

NASA astronaut Christina Koch is taking a new role at the agency after making history as the first woman to fly near the moon during the Artemis II mission in April. Thirteen years after being selected as an astronaut, Koch plans to trade her spacesuit for a desk, NASA announced. The news comes about six months after Koch was part of the four-person Artemis II crew that rode a NASA spacecraft on a 10-day journey toward the moon. The mission marked a landmark moment in U. S. spaceflight, becoming not just the first crewed moon mission in half-a-century, but taking the astronauts farther from Earth than anyone had ever been. With Koch's announcement, all four of those astronauts have now stepped away from spaceflight to eye new career opportunities. Here's what to know about Koch, as well as what's next for the record-setting NASA astronaut. Rocket launches: Rocket launches due to surge in next decade across USArtemis II astronaut takes on new role at NASAEffective Nov. 1, Koch will become NASA's acting deputy chief engineer, NASA announced in an Oct. 13 press release. Koch will replace Katherine Van Hooser, who served in the role for 35 years.

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team completed a marathon of activities to fine-tune the observatory’s vision and prepare the primary instrument for routine use. “All of Roman’s sweeping surveys will rely on the Wide Field Instrument,” said Dave Hickey, a Wide Field Instrument systems engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Many of the mission’s primary goals, like studying dark matter and dark energy, wouldn’t be possible without it, so it’s both exciting and a huge relief to see that it’s working well!”

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s fine-guidance system, which allows the observatory to lock very steadily onto its targets during observations, passed a spate of tests from Sept. 15 to 21. Then on Sept. 22, the mission’s Coronagraph Instrument opened its eyes to cosmic light for the very first time. The team assigned a small part of each of the 18 detectors in Roman’s primary instrument, the Wide Field Instrument, to rapidly observe a separate guide star — stars with well-known positions used as reference points. When Roman’s attitude control system gets the spacecraft pointed in the right direction, information from the fine-guidance system then helps hold it steady throughout each observation so it doesn’t drift off target. Using only the attitude control system, Roman’s images wouldn’t be as crisp.