Watkins became only the fifth Black woman ever to travel into space and the first to join a space station expedition.
Jessica Watkins is a self-described"rock nerd" with a doctorate in geology. So when she boarded her first mission to space as a member of NASA's astronaut corps, she brought along photos of family and friends — and some rocks.
That desire became a reality as result of the zeal she brought to her academic pursuits, Watkins said in a January interview. And Watkins hopes she can instill that enthusiasm for knowledge into young people who aspire to be like her. She counts astronaut Mae Jemison, the first Black woman to travel into space, as a key figure, and she drew inspiration from her parents and family members as well as teachers and mentors she met along the way.
But flipping through Stanford's course catalog, she discovered geology classes about searching for habitable planets that sparked her interest. Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | Omny Studio "The international cooperation that is required to do what we do up here every day is exactly like that," she said.
"We are able to have dinner together, spend time together with them, and we really become family with them," Watkins told CNN."We all are there to successfully and safely execute our missions. ... We really have that common ground." To pass the time when research projects or routine maintenance weren't overwhelming her calendar, Watkins said she stared out the space station's nook of windows, called the cupola, to catch views of Earth whisking by.
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