Former Caltech Postdoc Commands NASA Mission to the International Space Station

This morning, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission successfully launched to the International Space Station, commanded by NASA astronaut and former Caltech postdoc Jessica Watkins. The crew of four astronauts will perform research, technology demonstrations, and maintenance.

This is the second flight to the space station for Watkins, who was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2017. She grew up in Lafayette, Colorado, and earned an undergraduate degree in geological and environmental sciences from Stanford University, then a doctorate in geology from UCLA. A planetary geologist, Watkins studied the Martian surface and was a member of the Curiosity rover science team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which Caltech manages for NASA. At Caltech, Watkins worked in the research group of John Grotzinger, the Harold Brown Professor of Geology and former project scientist of the Curiosity Rover.

Watkins first launched to the space station aboard NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4 mission in 2022, spending a total of 170 days in orbit across Expeditions 67 and 68. She will be the first NASA astronaut to launch twice aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

Read our interview with Watkins from 2017 here: https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/caltech-postdoc-future-astronaut-78560