Jessica Watkins, a NASA astronaut, is prepared to become the first Black woman to fly in space for an extended period of time.

Watkins is scheduled to sail to the International Space Station in April on a SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle as part of the company's Crew-4 mission. Watkins, who is a mission expert for NASA's Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon, will spend around six months living and working on the orbiting lab. Watkins will be making his first trip into space.

Watkins will be the first Black woman to live in space for an extended period of time as a result of this expedition.

"I think it's important to recognize this as a milestone for our agency and for our country, as well, to know that we are building on the foundation that was laid by the Black woman astronauts who've come before me," Watkins told NPR's Morning Edition. "I'm definitely honored to be a small part of that legacy, but ultimately be an equal member of the crew."

Watkins isn't the first African-American woman to work for NASA. Despite the fact that the agency's astronaut corps has become increasingly diverse since the days of Apollo, Black astronauts make up fewer than 10% of the approximately 250 people who have visited the ISS. Former NASA astronaut Mae Jemison became the first Black woman to travel to space in 1992, just over 30 years ago.

Only three Black women have traveled into space since then: NASA astronauts Stephanie Wilson and Joan Higginbotham, as well as Inspiration4 astronaut Sian Proctor. Yvonne Cagle, Jeanette Epps, and Watkins are three other Black women who have been nominated to join NASA's astronaut corps but have yet to fly to space.

Epps will go to the International Space Station in Boeing's Starliner astronaut capsule. While she was selected for the Starliner-1 mission in 2020, the launch date has been moved back from March 2022 to March 2023.

Watkins will join NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Robert Hines, as well as European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, on this mission. She told NPR that she will observe and photograph geological features on Earth as part of her mission.

"We can look through the windows and take awesome pictures. And it allows us to track changes over time and to see features that we're not able to see from other assets that we have," Watkins said.

She'll also undertake a range of science studies with her crewmates in the domains of Earth and space science, biology, and even human physiology. Part of a mission like this, she told NPR, involves the astronauts researching themselves. "We kind of become the lab rats ourselves ... to help us learn about the effects of long-duration spaceflight on humans, the physical effects, as well as the cognitive effects," she said.

"We are all coming together to accomplish this really hard thing that none of us would be able to do on our own," Watkins told NPR. "I think that is just such a beautiful picture of what we can all do if we come together and put all of our resources and skill sets together."

Watkins, who is a geologist and an astronaut with NASA's Artemis program, was asked how she would feel about one day being on the moon and picking up moon rocks for herself.

"We've looked at lots of images and even looked at samples that the Apollo astronauts brought back," she told NPR. "But to be able to be a real field geologist on the surface of another planet would just be unreal."