NASA has announced its 2017 class of astronaut candidates and it turns out that only one of them is Black.
According to the Huffington Post, 29-year-old Jessica Watkins is one of only 12 candidates who made it to the final class out of 18,300 applicants.
Watkins has a Bachelor’s degree in Geological and Environmental Sciences from Stanford and a Doctorate in Geology from UCLA. She said becoming an astronaut has been her lifelong dream.
Watkins was born in Maryland but calls Lafayette, Colorado home. She told the Lafayette News that she’s “excited about contributing to” NASA’s expansion of human presence in space.
The new astronaut candidates will start the two year training program in August at the Johnson Air Space Centre in Houston.
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