In 2003, she became a naval aviator and, a year later, started her operational flying career with the military, which has included 47 combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. She began her military career with the United States Marine Corps as a second lieutenant in 1999 and completed flight training in 2001. “It’s important that we celebrate our diversity and really communicate that specifically to the younger generation.”īorn in Petaluma, California, Mann studied mechanical engineering at the United States Naval Academy, then went on to earn a master’s degree from Stanford, per NASA. “I feel very proud,” Mann told reporters before lift-off, as reported by the Guardian’s Maya Yang. (Only two women- Eileen Collins and Pamela Melroy-held that position on NASA space shuttle flights before the agency retired that program in 2011.) Mann is also the first woman to serve in the commander role during a SpaceX mission. Her historic achievement comes 20 years after the first Native American man, John Herrington, walked in space in 2002.
The flight marked the sixth time Elon Musk’s space company has ferried astronauts to the ISS on behalf of NASA. Mann, a 45-year-old member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, is serving as mission commander for the SpaceX Crew-5 mission. With it, Nicole Mann became the first Native American woman to go to space. As the craft hurtled beyond Earth’s atmosphere en route to the International Space Station (ISS), the mission had already made history. The Dragon Endurance spacecraft, built by SpaceX, launched from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center Wednesday afternoon, carrying a crew of astronauts from multiple nations.
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