In 2021,NASAastronaut Jeanette Epps will blast off in a Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft for a six - month stretch aboard theInternational Space Station(ISS ) . Not only will it be her first trip to space , but she ’ll also be make story as the first Black woman to live on the ISS .
When Epps was 9 years honest-to-goodness , her older brother evoke that she become either an astronaut or an aerospace applied scientist , and she thought the latter option was more feasible . After graduate from LeMoyne College in Syracuse , New York , with a point in physics , she continue her education at the University of Maryland , College Park , where she finally vex a doctor’s degree in aerospace engineering . According to a NASApress freeing , Epps pass the next few years compose patents in a research testing ground until the CIA came calling with a job whirl : technical intelligence policeman . She stayed with the agency for seven year , but when a friend told her that NASA was looking fornew astronauts , she decided to apply .
“ I never thought that they ’d actually select me , ” shetoldParentology . “ But they did . ”
While Epps has n’t been to outer space yet , she has embarked on mint of other fascinating journeys — include nine days in NASA ’s underwater research centre , and five day canvas microorganisms in a very dark Slovenian cave .
The upcoming mission will also be the first spaceflight for fellow crew phallus Josh Cassada , while Sunita Williams , their other workfellow , has visited twice already .
“ I ’m super excited to conjoin Suni Williams and Josh Cassada on the first operational Boeing gang delegation to the International Space Station , ” Eppssaidin a Twitter video . “ I ’ve vanish in whirlybird with Suni vaporize and I ’ve flown in the back of a T-38 with Josh flying , and they are both fantastic mass to work with . So I ’m search forward to the missionary work . ”
According toCNBC , six mordant astronauts have impose the ISS in the past times , but they ’ve only been there for forgetful hitch . Victor Glover is slat to expend six months there on a military mission launching this October , which would make him the first Black world to live aboard the station .
