Jessica Watkins is an astronaut. She is scheduled to become the first Black woman to spend six months on the International Space Station on an extended mission. Watkins is scheduled to go into space in April. In November of last year, NASA women revealed their participation in the SpaceX Crew-4 mission. The trip will be a part of NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return people to the moon by 2025. Jessica Watkins will operate as a mission specialist from the International Space Station to study and document geological changes on Earth.
“We are building on the groundwork set by the Black women astronauts who came before me. I’m pleased to be a little part of that tradition while still being an equal member of the team.”
Everything that is known about astronauts Jessica Watkins
Dr. Watkins was born in Maryland and raised in Lafayette, Colorado, according to her NASA biography. The space agency spotted her in 2017 and placed her in a training program, where she trained for two years to be ready for space missions. The 33-year-old astronaut earned a bachelor’s degree in Geological and Environmental Sciences from Stanford University. Dr. Watkins earned her PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she studied the planet’s surface and massive landslides.
She was a postdoctoral candidate in Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology after receiving her degree. She was also an assistant coach for the women’s basketball team at Caltech. Jessica Watkins worked with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) and was a member of the scientific team on the Curiosity Mars rover while at Caltech. She interned at JPL and NASA’s Ames Research Center, where she worked on the Curiosity expedition and other projects.
Jessica Watkins will make her first trip to space on the SpaceX Crew-4 mission, targeted to launch in April 2022. She’s a geologist who worked at @NASAAmes & @NASAJPL prior to being selected for our most recent class of @NASA_Astronauts: https://t.co/btlgMrF5kO pic.twitter.com/OMFBPtb4tj
— Women@NASA (@WomenNASA) November 16, 2021
Jessica Watkins was a participant in NASA’s Desert Research and Technology Studies in 2011. She was also a member of the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations 23 mission in 2019, when she participated in aquatic missions in an underwater habitat, two years later. Watkins has earned several awards during her work, including the NASA Group Achievement Award, the UCLA Chancellor’s Prize in 2010, and various Rugby prizes. According to her biography:
“She likes sports such as rugby, basketball, soccer, skiing, coaching, movies, and writing.”
Watkins previewed her forthcoming assignment on Instagram on December 7 with the caption:
“And with that, the (next) journey starts.”
Watkins will be the fourth black female astronaut to reach the International Space Station. She will, however, be the first in her category to spend six months on the International Space Station.
