---
title: Alumna Blasts Into Space
date: 2024-03-04T05:30:00-05:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/alumna-blasts-into-space"
section: Articles
---
# Alumna Blasts Into Space

*March 4, 2024* — by [Annie Krakower](/author/annie-krakower)


> NASA Astronaut Jeanette Epps Becomes Second Black Woman to Join ISS

*Getty Images 2049066913 1920x1080 — Jeanette Epps. M.S. '94, Ph.D '00 (below, pictured in crew capsule) is part of a NASA-Space X crew of three American astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut that lifted off late Sunday night from Kennedy Space Center for a six-month mission on the International Space Station.*

As the countdown reached zero and the Falcon 9 rocket lifted off amid billowing smoke and flame from the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Sunday night, a Terp was preparing to take up temporary residence in a new home circling over the globe.

Mission specialist Jeanette Epps M.S. ’94, Ph.D. ’00, one of four astronauts on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 mission, is beginning a six-month stint on the International Space Station (ISS), where she’ll serve as a flight engineer. A NASA astronaut since 2009, she ventured into space for the first time.



*epps in crew capsule*




**Topics:** [People](https://today.umd.edu/tags/people)


**Tags:** [Aerospace Engineering](https://today.umd.edu/topic/aerospace-engineering), [Alumni](https://today.umd.edu/topic/alumni)


**Units:** [A. James Clark School of Engineering](https://today.umd.edu/topic/james-clark-school-engineering)