Jessica Watkins becomes first Black woman on NASA’s International Space Station crew

This post was originally published on St. Louis American

NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins has made history becoming the first Black woman on the International Space Station crew.

According to NASA, she will launch into space in April 2022 on the SpaceX Crew-4 mission. She has been preparing for her first space mission since being appointed as an astronaut candidate in 2017.

NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Robert Hines, as well as the European Space Agency’s Samantha Cristoforetti, are the other three crew members on the mission.

NASA said this is the fourth crew rotation flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station.

The team will launch into space from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. For six months, they will conduct scientific research in the ISS microgravity laboratory.