NASA Astronaut, Jessica Watkins, Is the 1st Black Woman on International Space Station Crew (Unpublished)

 

Jessica Watkins will be the first of many black women be on the International Space Station.

Jessica Watkins Instagram Post

In April 2022, the 33-year-old will blast off to commence on a long-duration mission at the space station. Her official title is Mission Specialist for the SpaceX Crew-4. She is being launched up there with fellow astronauts Robert Hines, Kjell Lundgren and Samantha Christoforetti. The mission for her and the crew is to conduct research in the microgravity laboratory as it orbits Earth.

What is Microgravity, you ask? Below is an excerpt from NASA's NASA Knows (Grades 5 - 8) series.

"Microgravity is the condition in which people or objects appear to be weightless. The effects of microgravity can be seen when astronauts and objects float in space. Microgravity can be experienced in other ways, as well. "Micro-" means "very small," so microgravity refers to the condition where gravity seems to be very small. In microgravity, astronauts can float in their spacecraft - or outside, on a spacewalk. Heavy objects move around easily. For example, astronauts can move equipment weighing hundreds of pounds with their fingertips. Microgravity is sometimes called "zero gravity," but this is misleading."

Just for context, a ten-year-old child knew that before I did...

Anyways, Jessica Watkins was born in Gaithersburg, Maryland and now calls Boulder, Colorado home.

She worked as a geologist with a bachelor's degree from Stanford University. Where she then got her doctorate from the University of California. SHE THEN became an intern for NASA at various research centers in California. That intern group was called Group 22, nicknamed "The Turtles".

spacebutmessier instagram post

Also while at Stanford, she found the time be a rugby player. Every year she was there, the Stanford Cardinals Women's Rugby Squad was in the Division I National Championship game. They won in 2008. Jessica even found more time be part of the school's club basketball and soccer teams. She even was an assistant coach with the Caltech women’s basketball team.

LIKE HOW?!?!

When Jessica Watkins was first selected as an astronaut, she worked as a post-doctoral fellow on the science team for several Mars Science Laboratory projects. Including the rover, Curiosity, and the helicopter, Ingenuity.

Jessica Watkins Instagram Post

Watch the NASA video below to get to know her a little better.

NASA: Meet Jessica Watkins

 

"A dream feels like a big faraway goal that's going to be difficult to achieve or something you might achieve much later in life."

"But in reality, what a dream realized is just one putting one foot in front of the other on a daily basis. If you put enough of those footprints together, eventually they become a path towards your dreams."

 

Congratulations to Jessica Watkins. "Live long, and prosper."

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