Twenty-two years ago. In November 1997, the International Space Station (ISS), a man-made artificial satellite, was launched into Earth orbit. More than two decades have passed since then. This is the first time a black female astronaut has visited ISS. Name Jessica Watkins. NASA has announced today that Jessica will be one of the astronauts on the SpaceX Crew-4 mission in April next year.

Of course, a black woman has stepped into space before. May Jamieson, the first American-African woman to fly in the space shuttle Endeavor in 1992. May orbited the Earth 126 times in an Endeavor spacecraft with six passengers. Spent 190 hours in space. However, the number of black astronauts in both men and women is very low. Bernard Harris Jr., the first black male astronaut, set foot in space in 1995. Victor Glover Jr. went into space in November 2020. He was the first black man to stay in the ISS for a long time.

In 2016, the story of three NASA black women victims of racism was responded to. The film 'Hidden Figures' was made about their lives that year. The film is based on a book by Margot Lee Shutterley in Hollywood. The picture shows how NASA's three black mathematicians and engineers Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson had to face gender and racism. Not long ago, in honor of Mary Jackson, NASA's first female engineer, NASA's headquarters in Washington, D.C., was named after Mary in 2020. This is the first black woman to go to the space station in two years.