dr. jeanette epps is the first black astronaut to go to nasa’s international space station!

Black girl magic is already abundant in 2017! Next May, Dr. Jeanette Epps is set to become the first African-American astronaut to become a crew member of the International Space Station. A native of Syracuse, NY, Epps attended LeMoyne College and attained a bachelor’s degree in physics in 1992 before earning her master’s of science and a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland. Epps was a fellow with the NASA Graduate Student Researchers Project during her Ph.D. and authored several journal and conference articles about the research she was doing. As if that wasn’t enough, she was eventually recruited by the CIA and finally was selected as a member of NASA’s astronaut class of 2009. Epps will join Feustel as a flight engineer on Expedition 56 and remain on board for Expedition 57, making all of her hard work, dedication, and grit truly worth it. Congrats to Dr. Jeanette Epps!

By T. McLendon, AFROPUNK Contributor

Photo courtesy of NASA