This professional cyclist just made the NASA astronaut program
American Christina Birch rode the track at the 2020 Olympics
Photo by:
UCI @UCI_cycling
On Monday, NASA announced its 10 new astronaut candidates, and former pro cyclist Christian Birch is one of them. This is the first new class of astronauts in four years, and the selection is incredibly competitive, with over 12,000 people having applied.
The rider first studied mathematics, biochemistry and molecular biophysics from the University of Arizona. She then received her Ph.D. in biological engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she began competing on their collegiate cycling team.
As a professional cyclist, she won 11 national championship titles, two Pan-Am titles, and made the 2021 Olympic team. Her partner also happens to be Ashton Lambie, current world champion in the individual pursuit, who couldn’t be happier for her.
Birch’s Astronaut training will be two years long, at which point she could be “assigned to missions that involve performing research aboard the space station, as well as deep space missions to destinations including the Moon on NASA’s Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket,” according to a press release from NASA.
Both Birch and Lambie have relocated to Texas as she will begin her training in January 2022 at the Johnson Space Centre.
NASA announces the 2021 class of 10 astronaut candidates:
Nichole Ayers
Marcos Berríos
Christina Birch
Deniz Burnham
Luke Delaney
Andre Douglas
Jack Hathaway
Anil Menon
Christopher Williams
Jessica Wittner pic.twitter.com/AoWIqMDEKk— Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz) December 6, 2021
The cyclist credited her sport for giving her the drive to…shoot for the stars. “You might think that my path as a bio engineer and a cyclist is a little bit out there, but it was really all of those skills that I gained from those experiences that helped me get here,” Birch said. “And so I think my advice would be to find something that you’re really interested in, really curious about, passionate about, and explore that deeply.
