Meet NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins, who just became the first Black woman to lead a crew to orbit

 by Dollita Okine, Face2FaceAfrica.com

Jessica Watkins continues to break barriers in space exploration after adding a second mission to the International Space Station (ISS) as commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission. Watkins, a geologist who worked with NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity a decade ago, has made her second trip to the space station after a long stay in 2022.

The mission launched on October 1, 2026, at 11:10 a.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral, Florida. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carried the Dragon spacecraft with Watkins, Luke Delaney from NASA, Joshua Kutryk from the Canadian Space Agency, and Sergey Teteryatnikov from Roscosmos. 

SpaceX launched commander Watkins and her crew for NASA after a three-week delay to fix their Dragon capsule’s leaking fuel system. 

The astronauts arrived at the ISS seven hours and 55 minutes later, making it the fastest trip by a U.S. spacecraft. They will replace the SpaceX Crew-12 team, which was scheduled to return Wednesday, October 7.

“We are so excited to be here. This is truly a special place,” Watkins said on the NASA livestream. “It’s amazing and kind of ironic to think that it’s such a short trip to get here because the journey to get here has been long.”

Watkins and her team will perform science experiments and do maintenance on the station, as stated by NASA.

This trip makes Watkins the first Black woman to lead a crew to orbit. She also made history in 2022 as the first Black woman to participate in an extended mission to the ISS and join its crew.

“Thanks for an amazing ride,” Watkins radioed after liftoff.

This was SpaceX’s 13th crew launch for NASA, excluding the 2020 test flight. The Crew-13 patch honors Apollo 13, a U.S. lunar spacecraft that suffered a severe malfunction on its journey to the moon and safely returned to Earth on April 17, 1970.

Watkins and her crew arrived at the launch pad in black Teslas with “Lucky 13” plates and brought a small crocheted golden dragon named Lucky, wearing a four-leaf clover.

“We figured it wouldn’t hurt to bring a little of our own luck just in case, but clearly we don’t need it,” Watkins said from orbit, noting they were “four of the luckiest humans on or off planet Earth”.

“Crew-13 is another demonstration of America’s unmatched capability in human spaceflight and the strength of our commercial partnerships,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a release. “Jessica, Luke, Joshua, and Sergey will carry forward important work aboard the International Space Station while helping us build the experience and capabilities needed for ambitious missions to the Moon and beyond.”

Watkins became a NASA astronaut in 2017 after earning her doctorate in geology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and starting her career as an intern at NASA. 

Her groundbreaking journey began in 2022 when she flew on the SpaceX Dragon with fellow astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and Samantha Cristoforetti, completing a 15-hour mission to the ISS.