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Who is Jessica Watkins?

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Who is Jessica Watkins?

Jessica Watkins, 33, is the first Black woman to live and work at the International Space Station. She will join a SpaceX crew-4 mission after April 2022, marking her first flight into space.

Jessica Watkins. Photo: Robert Markowitz / NASA

Who was the first Black person on the International Space Station?

NASA astronauts Shannon Walker, left, Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi, right. Photo: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Victor Glover, part of SpaceX’s Crew-2 mission that launched in November 2020, became the first Black astronaut to join the station crew. Others have visited the space station for a shorter period. A total of 248 people have visited the 21-year-old ISS. Seven of them have been Black.

Who were the first Black astronauts?

In 1983, Guion Bluford became the first Black astronaut to travel to space. Mae Jemison followed nine years later and became the first Black woman in space.

Who was the youngest American to launch into space?

29-year-old childhood bone-cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux became the youngest American to travel to space on Sept. 16, 2021, after SpaceX launched the world’s first all-civilian human spaceflight into Earth’s orbit. She is also the first person in space with a prosthesis, a titanium rod in her left leg.

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