A Colorado astronaut will represent the Centennial State on an upcoming mission to space!
Jessica Watkins has been selected to serve as a mission specialist on NASA's next SpaceX Crew-4 mission.
This will be Watkins' first trip to space, as well as the fourth crew rotation flight of the Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station.
Although she was born in Gathersburg, Maryland, Watkins considers Lafayette, Colorado, her hometown. She graduated from Fairview High School and went on to receive a bachelor's degree in geological environmental sciences from Stanford and a doctorate in geology from UCLA.
Watkins was selected to become an astronaut in 2017, beating out more than 18,000 other applicants for a shot to attend NASA’s astronaut candidate program. The program involved two years of intense training in the desert, under water and in the sky.
She and Matthew Dominick, another Colorado native, graduated from the program in 2020.
Watkins and several other crew members will launch in April 2022 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The group will spend six months aboard the microgravity laboratory on the International Space Station.
To follow along with Watkins as she takes to space, click here.
