Gaithersburg-born astronaut Jessica Watkins is the first black woman to serve aboard the International Space Station and to make a long-duration flight for NASA.
Her mission Crew-4 launched into space from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida early this morning on the spacecraft Dragon.
Watkins’s service is a milestone for underrepresented communities in science.
We love this news to the moon & back! 🥳💚Congrats to #GirlScoutAlum @astro_watkins for breaking barriers & being the first Black woman to serve aboard the International @Space_Station. 👏🏾 @NASA https://t.co/lT9hB3125X
— Girl Scouts (@girlscouts) April 27, 2022
Meet our @SpaceX #Crew4 before our overnight launch coverage begins at midnight ET (4:00 UTC).
The astronauts spent every day for months together preparing for any obstacle—which may just be surviving one another’s bad jokes.
Live launch broadcast: https://t.co/cdxWseYBCZ pic.twitter.com/oBs3FuGYKq
— NASA (@NASA) April 26, 2022
SpaceX launched this mission to benefit life on Earth by planning to conduct over 200 experiments, according to the SpaceX website.
Watkin’s biography details how NASA selected her as an astronaut candidate in 2017 and how she previously worked at NASA’s Ames Research Center and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Liftoff! 🚀
Jessica Watkins, former USA Sevens Eagle, is on her way to the International Space Station and will be the first Black woman to complete a long-term mission aboard the ISS. pic.twitter.com/7JUaakah83
— USA Rugby (@USARugby) April 27, 2022
Photo credit NASA website.
