Astronaut Jeanette Epps selected for the Starliner Mission by NASA; Read details

The American space agency, NASA has recently selected the unflown astronaut Jeanette Epps to join the crew of the Starliner mission. Starliner is the first operational Boeing CST-100 to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission is currently targeting for a 2021 launch.

The African American astronaut, who was controversially removed from a long-duration station increment two years ago, is going to serve as a Mission Specialist on the flight. She will be accompanied by Commander Sunita Williams and Pilot Josh Cassada. Both the astronauts took to their Twitter handles on Tuesday, August 25, to issue their congratulations to Jeanette Epps. Read on to know more about the NASA astronauts inspiring journey.

Read | Machine learning algorithm discovers 50 new planets from NASA's Kepler mission

Is Jeanette Epps American?

According to a report on NASA, the astronaut was born in Syracuse, New York. However, she was one of seven children of her parents, Henry and Liberta, who had moved to Syracuse fro Mississippi. She has a twin sister, Janet Epps. Both Jeanette and Janet excelled in mathematics as kids.

Jeanette went on to graduate from Thomas J. Corcoran High School in Syracuse in 1988 with a Bachelor of Science in Physics. In 1992 the astronaut joined LeMoyne College, to obtain a Master of Science. She proceeded to get a Doctorate of Philosophy in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland in 1994.

Read | NASA Scientist reveals Sun's early behaviour impacted development of life on Earth

Has Jeannette Epps worked with NASA before?

The NASA report further revealed that Jeanette Epps was a NASA Fellow during graduate school. The science prodigy has authored several highly referenced journal and articles describing her research for the space agency. After graduate school, Epps spent worked for the Ford Motor Company as a Technical Specialist. 

Read | NASA reveals an asteroid will be nearing Earth right before the US elections

One of her major contributions to Ford was her proof‐of‐concept work on using magnetostrictive actuators. The actuator is a component of a machine which helps to reduce vibrations that enter a vehicle. Her research resulted in a provisional patent. In 2002, Jeanette Epps joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and worked as a Technical Intelligence Officer for over seven years. The NASA astronaut received multiple performance rewards for her work at the CIA.

Read | NASA shares spectacular image of galaxy which was a host to supernova explosion

Jeanette Epps was removed from an earlier NASA mission

According to a report on Newsweek, in 2018 Jeanette Epps was set to become the first African-American astronaut to stay on the International Space Station (ISS) for long-term. However, at the last moment, NASA announced that 49-year-old astronaut had been removed from the scheduled expedition.

In the following days, there were many rumours claiming that NASA’s had a racist administration. Jeanette Epps’ brother Henry Epps reportedly took to Facebook at the time and cited racism as the reason for her removal in a now-deleted post. However, astronaut Epps remained silent on the matter.