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- By Native News Online Staff
Mann made history earlier this month when she became the first Indigenous woman ever to be launched into space. She serves as the mission commander on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 space mission on the Dragon spacecraft named Endurance.
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NASA selected Mann to become an astronaut in 2013. She is a California native with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering. Mann is a Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps and served as a test pilot in the F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet. Additionally, she deployed twice aboard aircraft carriers to support combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In an interview with Native News Online, Mann spoke about her path to becoming an astronaut.
“I didn’t figure that out until a little bit later on in life as a young girl growing up in Northern California,” Mann said. “I was certainly interested in math and science, but I didn’t really realize that being an astronaut was in the realm of possibility. So it wasn’t until I was flying jets in the Marine Corps, looking at my future career options, that I started looking at potentially becoming a test pilot and, from there, an astronaut. It took me a little time to get it all figured out.”
Watch the livestream here.
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