Nicole Mann becomes first Native woman to go to space with latest SpaceX mission

NASA astronaut Nicole Aunapu Mann has become the first Native American woman to travel to space. Mann is a Marine Corps pilot and NASA astronaut, as well as a member of the Wailacki tribe of the Round Valley Indian Tribes in California. Born in California, Mann graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and earned her wings as a Navy aviator and deployed twice aboard aircraft carriers, flying missions in support of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. She also earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. She was selected by NASA in June 2013 as one of eight members of the 21st NASA astronaut class intended to focus on space station operations before possible assignments to future missions to the moon, near-Earth asteroids or, eventually, Mars.

Mann is the mission commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission that will spend five months on the International Space Station, during which more than 200 experiments will be conducted, including spacewalks and 3D-printing human tissue.