Crew-4 is set up to launch in April 2022 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a six-month science objective aboard the microgravity laboratory.
Watkins was born in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and thinks about Lafayette, Colorado, her home town. She earned a bachelors degree in geological and environmental sciences from Stanford University and a doctorate in geology from the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Watkins conducted her graduate research study on the emplacement systems of big landslides on Mars and Earth. She began her career at NASA as an intern and has operated at the agencys Ames Research Center in California and NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. At the time of her astronaut choice, Watkins was a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology, where she worked together as a member of the Science Team for the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity.
For more than 21 years, human beings have lived and worked continually aboard the International Space Station in low-Earth Orbit, advancing clinical knowledge, showing brand-new innovations, and making research advancements not possible in the world.
Through the Commercial Crew Program and broader business efforts, NASA is working with private industry to develop human area transport services and a robust low-Earth orbit economy that enables the agency to concentrate on structure spacecraft and rockets for deep space missions to the Moon and Mars.
NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins is scheduled to fly to space for the very first time as part of NASAs SpaceX Crew-4 objective launching to the International Space Station. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
NASA has assigned astronaut Jessica Watkins to function as a mission specialist on the companys upcoming SpaceX Crew-4 objective, the 4th crew rotation flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station.
This will be Watkins very first journey to space following her choice as an astronaut in 2017. Watkins joins NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Robert Hines, in addition to ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, as a crew member for the Crew-4 objective.
NASA previously revealed the projects of Lindgren and Hines as spacecraft commander and pilot, respectively, in February, and ESA revealed Cristoforetti as a mission expert for the mission in May.
