, performing the second long-duration mission by a Black woman on the orbiting complex. But Epps was supposed to get there as soon as June 2018; that timeline was delayed twice, following reassignments from Russia's
"It has been a number of years, but I was confident that I would fly," Epps, 53, said during a livestreamed Crew-8 press conference held Jan. 25 at NASA's Epps noted that she kept her spirits up by focusing on training, which kept her"pretty busy over the last few years." NASA, she said, ultimately moved her to the SpaceX spacecraft to get flight experience sooner and prepare for future missions.Epps, an engineer by training and former Central Intelligence Agency technical intelligence officer, was selected by NASA in July 2009 as an astronaut candidate. Including international astronauts, only Epps and thedue to its 2.
Epps added that many of her Russian colleagues expressed safety concerns with her being removed from the Soyuz crew just months before launch, given they were training for about two years prior to the reassignment."I don't know where the decision came from and how it was made, in detail or at what level," Epps noted. in August 2020 for what would have been the spaceship's first operational mission to the ISS.