The Mars Society is proud to celebrate NASA astronaut Dr. Jessica Watkins, an alumna of our Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) analog program, as she prepares to return to space as commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station.
NASA and SpaceX are targeting 11:10 a.m. EDT on Thursday, October 1, for launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Watkins will be joined by NASA astronaut Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov for a long-duration science mission aboard the ISS.
Long before becoming a NASA astronaut, Watkins served as chief geologist during a 2009 NASA analog mission (Crew 86) at the Mars Desert Research Station in southern Utah. A geologist by training, she later worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was a science team collaborator for the Curiosity Mars rover. Crew-13 will mark her second journey to the ISS following her 170-day Crew-4 mission in 2022.
“Everyone at the Mars Society and MDRS is tremendously proud of Jessica and all that she has accomplished. To see someone who once conducted Mars analog fieldwork at our station now commanding a NASA mission to the International Space Station is incredibly inspiring and demonstrates the value of hands-on analog research and training. We wish Jessica and the entire Crew-13 team a safe and successful mission.” said James Burk, Executive Director of the Mars Society.
We encourage the entire Mars Society community to watch the launch live courtesy of NASA and cheer Jessica and her Crew-13 colleagues on as they head to orbit!