BILLINGS — As Artemis II made its historic launch Wednesday, friends of the first woman slated to orbit the moon, Christina Koch, gathered in Florida to celebrate the former Montanan.
Koch spent a couple of years living in Livingston and holds the record for the longest space flight by a woman.
Watch friends and students talk about the moon mission:
It was standing room only on the sands of Cape Canaveral as thousands of people gathered for the liftoff. Among the thousands were a dozen friends who flew in just for the moment to watch Koch.
Tom Woods and Shari Kepner have known Koch for nearly two decades.
"That's our friend, Christina, going to the moon. Ordinary people do extraordinary things and extraordinary people like Christina do extraordinary things too."
"Shout out to Christina, she's such a loving and caring and inspirational individual," Kepner said. "She's flying to the moon, but she is incredibly down to Earth."
For Woods, Kepner, and the crowd, the experience was unforgettable.
"It was just a really cool group of people who were, you know, in a time when we're really divided like this, it was really cool to see a huge diverse group of people going for the same thing," Woods said.
"It was very emotional today. I— even leading up to it— I found myself becoming emotional and tearing up and that's just me as well. But that launch was wow," Kepner said.
Added Woods: "And I admit, I teared up too. It was amazing."
The spaceship received the go-ahead around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, marking the first human mission to fly around the moon since 1972. Crews will test life-support systems ahead of future lunar landings.
In Billings Heights, five high school students were excited to watch history from Moon Valley Road. For Corin Wolenhagen, the launch sparked inspiration.
"I find it really exciting that we're getting back into another space race, because my engineering teacher kind of said that from like the early 1900s, we had a flight of about 120 feet in about 12 seconds, and 60 years later, we were landing people on the moon," Wolenhagen said.
"It's really cool, it's amazing, it's inspiring," Saylee Cantrell said.
Cantrell will now share the same memory with her grandparents.
"Our grandparents still talk about, um, they'll talk about, oh, like, Apollo 17 launched. And we get to talk about, well, like, we saw Artemis II launch," Cantrell said.
For the two students, going to space could be in their future.
"The idea sounds very, very amazing. I would, I would definitely enjoy it, I feel like, um, I think floating around would be just like in the little spaceship, floating around, having the zero gravity," Cantrell said.
"I think it would be cool, even if it's a one-way trip, just to be able to go out and see Earth how its supposed to be," Wolenhagen said.
Back in Florida, Woods and Kepner have some lasting thoughts for the team.
"Let's make sure that team makes it home safely," Kepner said.
Related:
Artemis II astronauts lift off for historic mission around the moon
"I feel great": Astronaut Christina Koch loving life on Earth after nearly a year aboard the space station
Astronaut with Montana ties becomes first woman selected for lunar mission
