Watkins will join the fourth SpaceX Crew next April on her way to entering the ranks of other history-making women at NASA like astronauts Mae Jemison and Sally Ride.
For every U.S. mission with NASA astronauts, a family from Texas has sent a bouquet of roses to NASA's Mission Control Center to show support to those who keep the astronauts safe.
Sian Proctor, who lifted off this month with three crewmates on the first all-civilian space launch, tells NPR that she "couldn't get enough" of the view from orbit.
Marking the latest step in the commercialization of space, the SpaceX mission set to launch Wednesday will carry four civilians, including a billionaire CEO, a physician assistant and a geoscientist.
In April, NASA chose Elon Musk's SpaceX to receive a highly sought-after $2.9 billion contract. It would involve the first spacecraft to land humans on the moon since 1972.
When SpaceX opened its rocket factory and launch pad in South Texas, few locals thought it would morph into such a large operation. Now environmentalists are worried about the long-term effects.
The astronauts returned from the International Space Station after their spacecraft, Resilience, set a new record for the longest spaceflight by a U.S. space capsule that carried a crew.
It's the third flight of the Crew Dragon capsule since last May, and the first time an American capsule has been reused in decades. There are now more astronauts than beds on the space station.
Four astronauts are set to launch to the space station Friday. When they arrive, the new crew of 11 will be the largest since the shuttle program, and there aren't enough sleeping pods for them all.
Physician assistant and pediatric bone cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux, 29, will be one of four crew members on the world's first all-civilian mission to space at the end of this year.
Four astronauts are scheduled to take a SpaceX capsule to the International Space Station on Saturday. NASA hopes to demonstrate the safety and reliability of regular crew transportation to the ISS.
NASA and SpaceX are welcoming home two astronauts who splashed down safely in the Gulf of Mexico after several months on the International Space Station.