美国宇航局宇航员杰西卡·沃特金斯将于2022年登上天空，进行历史性的首次国际空间站太空飞行。

沃特金斯将成为第一位在空间站执行长期任务的黑人女性，她将在空间站生活，并在环绕地球运行的微重力实验室进行研究。

NASA宣布，沃特金斯将担任SpaceX Crew-4任务的任务专家，这是Crew Dragon飞船上的宇航员第四次轮换到国际空间站。这将是她自2017年成为宇航员以来的首次太空之旅。

她将加入美国宇航局宇航员罗伯特·海因斯和谢尔·林德格伦，以及欧洲航天局宇航员萨曼莎·克里斯托弗雷蒂。该小组计划于2022年4月在佛罗里达州肯尼迪航天中心升空。

比尔·英格尔斯/美国宇航局

美国宇航局宇航员杰西卡·沃特金斯计划作为

沃特金斯出生于马里兰州，现在称科罗拉多州为家。此前，她是一名地质学家，拥有斯坦福大学学士学位和洛杉矶加州大学博士学位。

她作为实习生加入了美国宇航局，并在加州的多个研究中心工作。在选择宇航员时，沃特金斯是火星科学实验室漫游者“好奇号”科学团队的博士后研究员。

当沃特金斯明年春天发射到太空时，这将是她从小学起就有的梦想的实现。

沃特金斯在美国宇航局去年发布的一段视频中说:“梦想感觉像是一个遥远的大目标，很难实现，或者你可能会在晚年实现的东西。“但现实中，梦想实现的只是一个人每天把一只脚放在另一只脚前面。如果你把足够多的脚印放在一起，它们最终会成为你通往梦想的道路。”

NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins to be 1st Black woman on International Space Station crew

NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins will take to the skies in 2022 on a historic debut spaceflight to the International Space Station.

Watkins will become the first Black woman to embark on a long-duration mission at the space station, where she will live and conduct research in the microgravity laboratory as it orbits the Earth.

NASA announced that Watkins will serve as a mission specialist for the SpaceX Crew-4 mission, the fourth rotation of astronauts on the Crew Dragon spacecraft to the ISS. This will be her first journey to space since becoming an astronaut in 2017.

She will join NASA astronauts Robert Hines and Kjell Lindgren, as well as European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. The group is scheduled for liftoff in April 2022 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Watkins was born in Maryland and now calls Colorado home. Previously, she worked as a geologist with a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and a doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles.

She joined NASA as an intern and has worked at various research centers in California. At the time of her astronaut selection, Watkins worked as a post-doctoral fellow on the science team for the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity.

When Watkins launches into space next spring, it will be the realization of a dream she’s held since she was in elementary school.

"A dream feels like a big faraway goal that’s going to be difficult to achieve or something you might achieve much later in life," Watkins said in a video released by NASA last year. "But in reality, what a dream realized is just one putting one foot in front of the other on a daily basis. If you put enough of those footprints together, eventually they become a path towards your dreams."