Nicole Aunapu Mann

Nicole Aunapu Mann, born on June twenty-seventh, nineteen seventy-seven, is a distinguished American test pilot and NASA astronaut. A graduate of the US Naval Academy, Stanford University, and the US Naval Test Pilot School, she has made significant contributions to aviation and space exploration. As a US Marine, Mann has accumulated over two thousand five hundred flight hours across twenty-five types of aircraft, including the F/A-18 Hornet, and has completed two hundred carrier landings. Her experience also includes flying forty-seven combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In two thousand fifteen, Mann completed her astronaut training and was initially assigned to the Boeing CST-100 Starliner’s first crewed test flight, known as Boe-CFT. However, in August two thousand eighteen, she was reassigned to the SpaceX Crew-5 mission, where she made history as the first female commander of a NASA Commercial Crew Program launch.

Mann's first spaceflight took place in October two thousand twenty-two, marking her as the first Native American woman to venture into space. During her mission, she spent several months aboard the International Space Station. On January twentieth, two thousand twenty-three, she achieved another milestone by becoming the first Native American woman to conduct a spacewalk, collaborating with fellow astronaut Koichi Wakata.