Watkins was named an astronaut candidate in 2017 and is preparing for his first space mission since then.
The mission’s other three crew members include NASA astronauts Jill Lindgren and Robert Haynes, and ESA’s Samantha Cristoforetti.
The space agency said this was the Dragon Crew’s fourth periodic flight to the International Space Station.
The team will blast off into space from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The astronauts will spend six months at the International Space Station’s Microgravity Laboratory conducting scientific research, NASA said.
Watkins attended Stanford University in California with a bachelor’s degree in geology and environmental sciences, and later earned a doctorate in geology from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Astronauts have a long history with NASA, starting their careers there as interns, and previously held positions at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, and at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
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He was a member of the science team for the Mars Science Laboratory, Curiosity, while working as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Several colleagues at NASA have congratulated Watkins on his new role and his upcoming journey into space.
NASA astronaut Johnny Kim said, “More turtles in space! Congratulations to my friend and teammate, Jessica Watkins. He would be a great companion on the SpaceX Crew-4 team.”
“Congratulations to Jessica Watkins from @NASA_Astronauts! He has been selected to join @astro_kjell, Astro_FarmerBob and @esa’sAstroSamantha on the next @SpaceX Crew-4 mission, the fourth crew rotation flight from the Crew Dragon spacecraft to Space_Station.”
Pioneer history
Over the past half century, many people of color have paved the way for Watkins to fulfill his extraterrestrial dream.
Dr. Mae Jemison became the first black woman in space while on the shuttle Endeavor in 1992.
In 2013, Victor Glover Jr., a fellow US Senate legislator, was made an astronaut and became the first black person to carry out a long-term mission on the International Space Station. Be a crew member from 15 November 2020 to 2 May 2021.
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“Creator. Award winning problem solver. Music evangelist. Incurable introverts.”
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