Serena Aunon-Chancellor, born April 9, 1976 in Indianapolis, Indiana, is the second Hispanic female astronaut. She went into space aboard Soyuz MS-09 to the International Space Station in June 2018. She participated in Expeditions 56 and 57.
She also participated in Aquarius underwater laboratory NEEMO 16 and NEEMO 20.
Serena Aunon-Chancellor, born in Indianapolis, Indiana, is the second Hispanic female astronaut, following Ellen Ochoa. Her father arrived in the United States from Cuba in 1960.
Aunon-Chancellor launched aboard Soyuz MS-09 to the International Space Station, where she participated in Expeditions 56 and 57.
She also participated in NEEMO 20 at NASA's Aquarius underwater laboratory in July 2015.
Jeanette Epps, born November 3, 1970 in Syracuse, New York, was qualified to become an astronaut by NASA in 2011. She served as an aquanaut in the Aquarius underwater laboratory in the NEEMO 18 expedition in July 2014.
She was selected to become the first African-American space crew member to visit the International Space Station but was replaced by her backup Serena Aunon-Chancellor.
She is still active as an astronaut so look for her in the future!
Back in June, Soyuz MS-09 launched with Alexander Gerst (ESA), Sergey Prokopyev (RSA) and Serena Aunon-Chancellor to the International Space Station. They joined Andrew Feustel (NASA), Oleg Artemyev (RSA) and Richard Arnold (NASA) for the second part of Expedition 56. Serena became the first Latin resident of the ISS.
Today, they returned to Earth landing safely in Kazakhstan. They leave Oleg Kononenko (RSA), Anne McClain (NASA) and David Saint-Jacques for the remainder of Expedition 57.
The first building block of the International Space Station, the Zarya module, was launched November 20, 1998 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Two weeks later, the crew of STS-88 attached the Unity module to Zarya during spacewalks.
At this time, the Russian space station Mir was still occupied so the International Space Station remained uninhabited until Mir was deorbited. Expedition 1, the first crew to the ISS, arrived in November 2000. The crew members were William Shepherd (NASA), Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev (Roscosmos).
The ISS is now permanently manned and currently the crew of Expedition 57, Alexander Gerst (ESA), Serena Aunon-Chancellor (NASA) and Sergey Prokopyev (Roscosmos) is station there.
Soyuz MS-09 crew (L-R): Sergey Prokopyev, Alexander Gerst, Serena Aunon-Chancellor
Mission patch
Soyuz MS-09 launched this morning, taking the crew members of Expedition 56-57 to the International Space Station. Its crew is Commander Sergey Prokopyev (Roscosmos), Alexander Gerst (ESA and only non-rookie) and Serena M. Aunon-Chancellor (NASA and second Hispanic woman in space).
They will join Andrew Feustel, Oleg Artemyev and Richard Arnold already aboard the ISS for the second part of Expedition 56. The crew of Soyuz MS-09 will remain on board until December.
