Jessica Watkins

Jessica Andrea Watkins (born May 14, 1988) is an American NASA astronaut, geologist, aquanaut and former international rugby player.

Watkins was announced as the first Black woman who completed an International Space Station long-term mission in April 2022.

On June 9, 2022, at 7:38 UTC, she became the African American woman with the most time in space, surpassing Stephanie Wilson's 42 day, 23 hour and 46 minute record.

Jessica "Watty" Watkins was born on May 14, 1988, in Gaithersburg, Maryland, to Michael and Carolyn Watkins.

Her family moved to Lafayette, Colorado, where she graduated from Fairview High School.

She earned a bachelor's degree in geological and environmental sciences at Stanford University where she was a member of the rugby team.

After Stanford, Watkins earned a Ph.D. in geology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Her graduate research, under the supervision of professor An Yin, focused on emplacement mechanisms for landslides on Mars and Earth, including the effect of water activity.

Prior to her selection as an astronaut candidate, Watkins was a postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology, where she was also an assistant coach to the women's basketball team.

Watkins began playing rugby during her freshman year at Stanford and remained on the team for four years.

In 2008, during her sophomore year, she was a member of the Division I national champion team.

In both 2008 and 2010, Watkins became a member of First Team Collegiate Rugby All-American.

She is a former American women's national team rugby player for the sevens, and played for the USA Eagles in its 3rd-place finish at the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens.

During the World Cup she was the leading try scorer for the US team.

As an undergraduate, Watkins worked at the Ames Research Center to support the Mars Phoenix lander and prototype Mars drill testing.

In 2009, she was chief geologist for the NASA Spaceward Bound Crew 86 at the Mars Desert Research Station.

As a graduate student, she worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the NEOWISE project to survey near-Earth asteroids.

Watkins also worked on planning for the Mars rover Curiosity.

In 2011, Watkins served as a science operations team member for an analog mission.

In June 2017, Watkins was selected as a member of NASA Astronaut Group 22 and began her two-year training in August.

Watkins participated in NEEMO mission 23 from June 10 to 22, 2019.

This mission tested technologies and objectives for deep space mission and lunar explorations on the seafloor.

Watkins’ NEEMO mission was the first of its kind to feature an all-female research team led by Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.

Watkins' parents live in Lafayette, Colorado.

She has one sister.

Her hobbies include soccer, rock climbing, skiing, and creative writing.

Watkins has received numerous awards for her career, academic, and athletic accomplishments, including:

She has served as a planner for the Mars 2020 rover and a Mars sample-return mission, and was a science team member for a Desert Research and Technology Studies analog mission.

As a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech, and as a collaborator on the Mars Science Laboratory Science Team, she participated in daily planning of the Mars rover activities and uses its image data combined with orbital data to investigate the stratigraphy, geology, and geomorphology of Mars.

In December 2020, she was selected to be a part of the Artemis Team to return humans to the Moon.

The year 2025 is the target date for the crewed lunar landing mission.

In November 2021, she became the 4th astronaut of Group 22, and first Black woman, to be assigned a long-duration mission to the International Space Station (ISS) after being chosen as the final member of SpaceX Crew-4, which launched in April 2022.

It is Watkins’ first time in space.

She is serving as a mission specialist for the six-month mission.

Her role involves observing and photographing geological changes on Earth, as well as other investigations into Earth and space science, biological science, and the effects of long-duration spaceflight on humans.