Jeanette Epps

Jeanette Epps, born on November third, nineteen seventy, is a distinguished American aerospace engineer and retired NASA astronaut. She earned both her Master of Science and Doctorate degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland, where she contributed to the rotor-craft research group and was recognized as a NASA Graduate Student Research Program Fellow.

In two thousand nine, Epps was selected as part of the twentieth class of NASA astronauts, completing her training in two thousand eleven. Her career at NASA included serving in the ISS Operations Branch and participating in various analog astronaut missions, such as NEEMO eighteen and CAVES nineteen. Notably, she became the second woman and the first African-American woman to take part in the CAVES mission.

Epps was also a key member of the SpaceX Crew-8 mission, which launched on March fourth, two thousand twenty-four. This mission allowed her to spend two hundred thirty-five days in space, with two hundred thirty-two of those days aboard the International Space Station, culminating in her return to Earth on October twenty-fifth, two thousand twenty-four.