UCLA grad Jessica Watkins to become first Black woman on NASA space station crew

Rookie NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, who received her doctorate in geology from UCLA, is set to make aerospace history tomorrow when she becomes the first Black woman to ever serve as a crew member on the International Space Station. 

Hawthorne-based SpaceX is scheduled to launch the mission from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 12:52 a.m. Wednesday. Watkins and the other three members of "Crew-4" -- the fourth operational crew launched by SpaceX to the station under a contract with NASA -- will be flying aboard a new Crew Dragon spacecraft dubbed Freedom.

A geologist by trade, Watkins will serve as a mission specialist as a member of Crew-4, according to NASA. Flying with Watkins on the mission will be NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Robert Hines and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.  

The crew will spend six months on the space station, making Watkins the first Black woman to serve extended duty in outer space. Four other Black women have flown in space, but have never served as a long-term member of the space station crew.   

Watkins received her bachelor's degree in geological and environmental sciences from Stanford University before receiving her doctorate in geology from UCLA. She previously worked at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.