Christina Koch Says She's Recovering From Major Physical Change After Artemis II

Christina Koch and the rest of the four-person Artemis II crew returned to Earth this past Friday, splashing down off the coast of San Diego after their historic 10-day lunar flyby mission.

Now, Koch is getting readjusted to life on Earth.

On Friday, Koch posted a video of herself going through physical therapy. The NASA astronaut explained that her "vestibular organs" are not working correctly due to her 10-day experience in microgravity.

"Guess I’ll be waiting a minute to surf again," Koch wrote in an Instagram post.

"When people live in microgravity, the systems in our body that have evolved to tell our brains how we’re moving, the vestibular organs, don’t work correctly. Our brains learn to ignore those signals and so when we first get back to gravity, we are heavily reliant on our eyes to orient ourselves visually," she explained.

"A tandem walk with eyes closed can be quite the challenge! Learning about this can help inform how we treat vertigo, concussions and other neuro-vestibular conditions on Earth," she continued. "Luckily we’re already adapting back to gravity at 7 days post-splashdown!"

Koch and the Artemis II crew, including Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen, gathered a wealth of important research on their lunar flyby mission. They traveled further away from Earth than any humans in history, surpassing the previous record set by the Apollo 13 mission in 1970.

Koch addressed the public during a panel on Thursday, expressing gratitude for the world's support of the Artemis II mission.

“I cannot overstate how important that was to us,” Koch said. “It was every bit as important as accomplishing the technical goals and being there for our NASA teammates was to make this the world’s mission.”