Jeanette Jo Epps (born November 3, 1970) is an American

aerospace Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astrona ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

and

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

. Epps received both her M. S. and Ph.D degrees in

aerospace engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is si ...

from the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

, where she was part of the rotor-craft research group and was a NASA GSRP Fellow. She was chosen for the 20th class of NASA astronauts in 2009, graduating in 2011. Epps currently serves as a member of the ISS Operations Branch and has completed analog astronaut missions, including

NEEMO NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations, or NEEMO, is a NASA analog mission that sends groups of astronauts, engineers and scientists to live in the Aquarius (laboratory), Aquarius underwater laboratory, the world's only undersea research sta ...

18 and

CAVES A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

19. She is the second woman and first African-American woman to have participated in CAVES.

Early life and education

Jeanette Epps was born in

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...

, one of seven children born to Henry and Luberta ( Jackson) Epps, Mississippians who moved to Syracuse as part of the Great Migration. She and her twin sister Janet excelled in math and science. She graduated from

Corcoran High School Corcoran High School is a public high school located in Syracuse, New York, having approximately 1800 students. In 2005, it became a member of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program. It is one of the top 1000 ranked schools in the country ...

in Syracuse and earned a

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree from

Le Moyne College Le Moyne College is a private Jesuit college in DeWitt, New York.http://www.ongov.net/planning/haz/documents/Section9.7-TownofDeWitt.pdf It was founded by the Society of Jesus in 1946 and named after Jesuit missionary Simon Le Moyne. At its fo ...

and an

M.S. A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

and a

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

degree in

from the

Early research and career

While pursuing her

and

at the

, Epps was awarded a

GRSP Fellowship and went on to publish many academic works which have been highly cited. Her research was focused in the area of materials engineering, which included comprehensive testing of composite swept-tip beams, comparison of analytical models with experimental results for shape memory alloys, and use of shape memory alloy actuators for tracking helicopter rotor blades in-flight. After graduating, Epps worked in research at

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

, then as a Technical

Intelligence Officer An intelligence officer is a person employed by an organization to collect, compile or analyze information (known as intelligence) which is of use to that organization. The word of ''officer'' is a working title, not a rank, used in the same way a ...

with the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

. Her work at the

, resulted in a provisional patent involving the application of

magnetostrictive Magnetostriction (cf. electrostriction) is a property of magnetic materials that causes them to change their shape or dimensions during the process of magnetization. The variation of materials' magnetization due to the applied magnetic field chan ...

actuators to reduce

vibration Vibration is a mechanical phenomenon whereby oscillations occur about an equilibrium point. The word comes from Latin ''vibrationem'' ("shaking, brandishing"). The oscillations may be periodic function, periodic, such as the motion of a pendulum ...

s in the suspension control arms, and later, a US patent for detection of the location of a frontal collision in an automobile. She worked at the CIA for seven years, including deployments to Iraq.

NASA career

In June 2009, Epps was selected as an astronaut candidate for the 20th class of NASA astronauts and later qualified in 2011. Her training included extensive Russian, spacewalk (EVA) and robotics training, along with geology. She has also completed T-38 jet training and has attended the

National Outdoor Leadership School NOLS is a non-profit outdoor education school based in the United States dedicated to teaching environmental ethics, technical outdoor skills, wilderness medicine, risk management and judgment, and leadership on extended wilderness expeditions an ...

(NOLS). Epps subsequently served as an

aquanaut An aquanaut is any person who remains underwater, breathing at the ambient pressure for long enough for the concentration of the inert components of the breathing gas dissolved in the body tissues to reach equilibrium, in a state known as satura ...

aboard the

Aquarius Aquarius may refer to: Astrology * Aquarius (astrology), an astrological sign * Age of Aquarius, a time period in the cycle of astrological ages Astronomy * Aquarius (constellation) * Aquarius in Chinese astronomy Arts and entertainment ...

underwater laboratory during the NEEMO 18 undersea exploration mission for nine days starting July 21, 2014. She has also participated in geologic studies in Hawaii. Epps has worked with the Generic Joint Operation Panel as a representative, which included work on crew efficiency on the

ISS The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (J ...

. This work resulted in the Johnson Space Center Director's Innovation Group Achievement Award in 2013. She has also worked as

CAPCOM is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...

for Mission Control, including serving as lead CAPCOM, and currently serves in ISS Operations Branch. Epps has also completed training in winter and water survival in Star City, Russia. On January 4, 2017, NASA announced that Epps would be assigned as a flight engineer to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...

in mid-2018 for Expeditions 56 and 57, becoming the first African American space station crew member, the first African American to launch aboard the Russian

Soyuz Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз (Russian and Ukrainian, 'Union'). It can refer to any union, such as a trade union (''profsoyuz'') or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Сою́з Сове́тских Социалис� ...

vehicle, and the 15th African American to fly in space, but on January 16, 2018, NASA announced that Epps had been replaced by her backup

Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor Serena most commonly refers to: * Serena Williams (born 1981), professional tennis player Serena may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Serena (genre), 13th-century Occitan poetic genre * ''Serena'' (1962 film), a British crime th ...

, but that Epps would "be considered for assignment to future missions". The reason for Epps' removal was not stated, and a NASA spokesperson said, "These decisions are personnel matters for which NASA doesn't provide information." The ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' stated that "Last-minute crew changes are not unusual at NASA." In 2019, Epps completed the

ESA CAVES CAVES, an acronym for Cooperative Adventure for Valuing and Exercising human behaviour and performance Skills, is a European Space Agency astronaut training course in which international astronauts train in a space-analogue cave environment. Desi ...

training program simulating the demands of exploring unknown terrains, such as to be expected on the Moon and Mars. Epps is the second woman to participate in CAVES, following fellow NASA astronaut,

Jessica Meir Jessica Ulrika Meir (IPA: ; ; born ) is an American-Swedish NASA astronaut, marine biologist, and physiologist. She was previously an assistant professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, following ...

. Epps also participates in public speaking and she has been a guest speaker at the University of Maryland multiple times. In 2013, she gave the commencement speech for the A. James Clark School of Engineering's Winter Commencement Ceremony. She is currently a Member of the

Society for Science & the Public Society for Science, formerly known as Science Service and later Society for Science and the Public, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of science, through its science education programs and publications, including ...

, in addition to the

AIAA The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) is a professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA is the U.S. representative on the International Astronautical Federation and the International Council of ...

. On August 25, 2020, NASA announced that Epps would join the first operational mission of Boeing's

CST-100 Starliner The Boeing CST-100 Starliner
is a class of two partially

to the International Space Station. According to ''The New York Times'', Epps "would be the first Black woman to be part of an I.S.S. crew." African-American astronauts were members of space-shuttle crews during ISS construction, until Victor Glover none had become a crew member making an extended stay. NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps continues to prepare for an upcoming long duration mission aboard Starliner-1. NASA also has identified backup flight opportunities for Epps on the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for additional scheduling and resource flexibility. Epps has begun cross-training on the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft to prepare for this possibility.

Awards and honors

* 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 NASA GSRP Fellowship * 2003, 2004, 2008 Exceptional Performance Award * 2012 Academy of Distinguished Alumni,

* 2013

Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late U ...

Director’s Innovation Group Achievement Award * 2014 Glenn L. Martin Medal,

A. James Clark School of Engineering The A. James Clark School of Engineering is the engineering college of the University of Maryland, College Park. The school consists of fourteen buildings on the College Park campus that cover over . The school is near Washington, D.C. and Balti ...

Honorary Doctorates

* 2016 Doctorate of Humane Letters, LeMoyne College, New York

Selected publications

Epps has authored several highly referenced works, including conference and journal papers from her graduate research, along with a patent from her work at the Ford Motor Company. * Epps, J. and Chopra, I., “Methodology for In-flight Tracking of Helicopter Rotor Blades Using Shape Memory Alloy Actuators, Journal of the American Helicopter Society, Vol. 49, No. 2, April 2004, pp. 192-200. * Epps, J. J., and Chandra, R., "Shape Memory Alloy Actuation for Active Tuning of Composite Beams," Smart Materials and Structures Journal, 6 (1997), p. 251-256. * Epps, J. J., and Chandra, R., "The Natural Frequencies of Rotating Composite Beams with Tip Sweep," Journal of the American Helicopter Society, Vol. 41, No. 1, January 1996, pp. 29–36.

References

External links

Astronaut Bio: Jeanette J. Epps
{{DEFAULTSORT:Epps, Jeanette Jo 1970 births Living people African-American engineers African-American scientists American scientists American astronauts Women astronauts American aerospace engineers People of the Central Intelligence Agency Le Moyne College alumni University of Maryland, College Park alumni People from Syracuse, New York American women scientists Aquanauts Engineers from New York (state) 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women