American NASA Astronaut Jeanette J. Epps attends a meeting with journalists at the end of a six-days training organised by the European Space Agency's (ESA) CAVES program in the Divaska cave, southern Slovenia, on September 26, 2019. - In Slovenia's dramatically beautiful Karst region, six astronauts have been put through their paces for futre missions in deep underground in the area's network of cold, dark and muddy caves. They emerged blinking into the light after swapping their space suits for caving gear and spending six full days underground in the Unesco-listed Skocjan cave system. (Photo by Anze Malovrh / AFP)        (Photo credit should read ANZE MALOVRH/AFP via Getty Images)

1171504229

American NASA Astronaut Jeanette J. Epps attends a meeting with journalists at the end of a six-days training organised by the European Space Agency's (ESA) CAVES program in the Divaska cave, southern Slovenia, on September 26, 2019. - In Slovenia's dramatically beautiful Karst region, six astronauts have been put through their paces for futre missions in deep underground in the area's network of cold, dark and muddy caves. They emerged blinking into the light after swapping their space suits for caving gear and spending six full days underground in the Unesco-listed Skocjan cave system. (Photo by Anze Malovrh / AFP) (Photo credit should read ANZE MALOVRH/AFP via Getty Images)

Photo by: ANZE MALOVRH

ANZE MALOVRH

NASA Astronaut Jeanette Epps Will Make History with Her Next Mission

By: Leah Weber

It was announced this week that Astronaut Jeanette Epps will be added to NASA's Boeing Starliner-1 mission to the international Space Station. She will be the first Black astronaut to live on the ISS.

August 28, 2020

In an announcement on Thursday, August 27, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine assigned Jeanette Epps to an extended stay at the International Space Station (ISS) in 2021. She will be joining two other experienced astronauts, Sunita Williams and John Cassada as part of the ongoing NASA Commercial Crew Program.

This unprecedented assignment is special on many levels. It will be the first crewed flight of the Boeing Starliner-1 to the ISS, as well as the first time a Black astronaut has lived and worked on the ISS for a longer mission.

Epps has an impressive resume which includes a doctorate in aerospace engineering and time working as an engineer at the CIA. As a member of the 2009 NASA astronaut class, this will be Epps' first mission to space.

Discovery congratulates Astronaut Epps and we look forward to following her journey to the ISS.

Next Up

Watch NASA's Asteroid-Crashing DART Mission Make Impact

NASA sent a spacecraft on a mission to crash into an asteroid, so how did it go?Updated 9/26/22

NASA’s $10 Billion Space Telescope Hit by Micrometeoroid

NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was recently hit by a micrometeoroid. One of the 18 golden mirror segments on the telescope was hit, causing some minor damage.

When We’ll Know if NASA’s Asteroid Impact Test was a Success

Recently NASA’s DART mission succeeded in its primary goal, which was to slam a spacecraft face-first into an asteroid. For science. The intention of the mission was to test if we could actually redirect an asteroid and send it into a different orbit. But how and when will we know if it worked?

NASA Has a New Supersonic Jet and It’s Super-Quiet

There’s more to NASA than space. The agency’s full acronym stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. I’ve covered plenty of interesting stories in the space sector, so it’s time to the aeronautics side some love too.

NASA's New Rocket is Taller than the Statue of Liberty

The massive space launch system was unveiled last week. Following successful completion of upcoming simulation tests, NASA will set a date for the first of the Artemis II lunar missions.

The Nobel Prize Fell Into a Black Hole (and That’s a Good Thing)

The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics is being awarded to scientists to have dedicated their careers to the study of black holes.

What Screaming Black Holes are Telling Us

In 2002, NASA’s orbiting X-ray observatory, the Chandra telescope, mapped out the movements of hot gas in a cluster of galaxies sitting 250 million light-years away.

Want to Name a Planet? Now’s Your Chance

Read on to learn about this rare opportunity to name a distant world observed by the James Webb Telescope.

Astronomers May Have Found a Rare “Free-Floating” Black Hole

How do you see a perfectly black object in the middle of a pitch-dark night? It sounds like the start of an annoying riddle, but it’s really the question faced by astronomers when they want to search for black holes.

Watch Out! Amateur Astronomer Watches as Jupiter Gets Whacked

Jupiter is the OG best friend in the solar system. It finds all the tiny little comets and asteroids heading for the vulnerable inner planets and takes one for the team, chewing up the dangerous rocks in its thick atmosphere. It happened again just recently, and this time an amateur astronomer caught it in the act.

Related To: