NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps has been tapped as the first black woman to participate in an extended mission to the International Space Station.
NASA announced Tuesday that Epps would be joining astronauts Sunita Williams and Josh Cassada for the six-month expedition that has an expected launch date of 2021.
Epps will be joining onto the Starliner-1 mission, which the other two astronauts have been a part of since August 2018.
The mission will also be the first operational crewed flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft on a mission to the International Space Station.
‘I’m super excited to join Sunita Williams and Josh Cassada on the first operational Boeing crew member to the International Space Station,’ Epps said in a video she shared on Twitter once the news was announced.
‘I’ve flown in helicopters with Suni flying and I’ve flown in the backseat of a T38 with Josh flying and they are both wonderful people to work with, so I’m looking forward to the mission.’
If an uncrewed test mission is successful at the end of this year, Boeing and NASA will fly Starliner’s first crewed mission in summer 2021, with a post-certification mission roughly scheduled for the following winter, the company has said.
The 2021 spaceflight will be the first for Epps, who earned her bachelor’s degree in physics from LeMoyne College before completing her master’s degree in science and a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Epps has authored several journal and conference articles. Prior to her recruitment by the CIA, she co-authored several patents while researching in a laboratory.
The astronaut spent seven years as a technical intelligence officer for the CIA before her selection as a member of the 2009 astronaut class.
