The Higher Education of the Nation’s Newest Black Astronaut

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has chosen nine individuals to join the nation’s astronaut corps from a group of applicants of more than 3,500 candidates. One of the nine new astronauts is black.

Jeanette J. Epps, 38 years old, of Fairfax, Virginia, was a technical intelligence officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. A native of Syracuse, New York, Dr. Epps is a graduate of LeMoyne College. In 2000 she earned a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland.

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