Next month NASA will send a new crew into space. And for the first time, there will be a Native American woman on board.
Astronaut Nicole Aunapu Mann, of the Wailacki Indian tribe of the Round Valley, will be the mission commander, responsible for all phases of the flight.
It will go to the International Space Station on Sept. 29, NASA said.
“This is very interesting,” he told the Indian Country Today newspaper.
“I think it’s important to communicate this to our community, so that other Indigenous children… realize that some of the barriers that were there are really starting to come down,” she added.
Ms Mann said that within the 3.3 pounds (1.4 kg) allocated for personal items she would take “a dream catcher my mother gave me when I was very young”.
According to the Indigenous Foundation, the dream catcher symbolizes unity and provides protection.
Mann will be with three colleagues aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft as part of the Crew-5 mission.
It can even go to the moon. In 2020 he was selected to be in the pool of eligible astronauts for NASA’s Artemis program that will send humans to the Moon.
Mann, originally from California, studied mechanical engineering at Stanford University.
He became a colonel in the Marine Corps, flying various fighter aircraft. He has served twice on aircraft carriers in support of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has been awarded six medals for his services to the US military.
