NASA Astronaut Jessica Watkins To Become First Black Woman On The ISS
Image via NASA / Bill Ingalls
NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins has just been announced as part of the SpaceX Crew-4 mission, which will take to space in April 2022. This will make her the first-ever Black Woman on the International Space Station crew.
Many individuals have paved the way for this moment, beginning with Dr Bernard Harris Jr, who helped recruit minority and female astronauts, and was the first Black person to walk in space in 1995.
The other three members joining Watkins on the project are NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Robert Hines, and Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency. They will be the fourth crew heading to the ISS as part of SpaceX’s rotation program.
According to CNN, Watkins had been selected to be an astronaut in 2017, and has been preparing for her first mission ever since. Finally, the time has come. The Crew-4 will launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida onboard the Falcon 9 rocket and will spend up to six months in orbit conducting research.
Not a stranger to scientific research in space, Watkins was once a member of the team for Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory rover. At the moment, she was working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology.
“Geology provided a means for me to study the surface of another planet and particularly look at Mars, which was my passion,” said Watkins.
Watkins’ fellow NASA colleagues congratulated her on her upcoming flight to space, with Jonny Kim tweeting: “More Turtles in space! Congrats to my friend and teammate, Jessica Watkins. She’s going to be an amazing cremate for @SpaceX Crew-4.”
More Turtles in space! Congrats to my friend and teammate, Jessica Watkins. She's going to be an amazing crewmate for @SpaceX Crew-4. https://t.co/VtmuWrXUcq
— Jonny Kim (@JonnyKimUSA) November 17, 2021
[via CNN, cover image via NASA / Bill Ingalls]
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