When she was growing up in northern California, Nicole Aunapu Mann was always interested in math and science. But it wasn’t until her late 20s, after learning to pilot fighter jets in the U.S. Marine Corps, that she realized she could combine her technical interests with her high-flying skills to become a NASA astronaut.
In October 2022, NASA astronaut Nicole Aunapu Mann became the first American Indian woman to travel to space.
Photo Courtesy of NASA
In November 2022, astronaut Mann floated aboard the International Space Station with Earth’s ocean and clouds visible behind her.
Photo Courtesy of NASA
Mann, who commanded a nearly six-month-long mission at the space station, also performed two hours-long spacewalks to help upgrade the orbiting outpost.
Photo Courtesy of NASA
In October 2022, Mann (a member of the Wailacki Tribe of the Confederated Tribes of Round Valley Indian Reservation) became the first American Indian woman to travel to space. For nearly six months, she served as commander of a four-person crew who lived and worked aboard the International Space Station. Looking down as she orbited the planet at 17,500 miles per hour, she watched continents race by, the sun rising and setting every 90 minutes.
One important tether to life back on Earth was a dreamcatcher, a gift from her mother that Mann carried on her space voyage. When she was a child, the dreamcatcher hung in her bedroom, as it is believed to be able to trap bad dreams and let good ones filter through. Aboard the space station, it helped her cope when she was frustrated and needed inspiration to persevere. “It’s the strength to know that I have the support of my family and community back home,” she told the Associated Press.
Mann was born in Petaluma, California, and grew up in Sonoma County, about two hours south of the Round Valley Indian Reservation. Her parents instilled a strong work ethic in her while her extended family and community provided support and advice. In high school, Mann was an athlete who devoted much of her time to soccer. “I think it was part of being on a team and being part of something bigger than just me,” she reminisced in a NASA video.
Her father served in the U.S. Army, and she also wanted to serve her country. So she combined her interests in serving in the military and sports with math and science by studying engineering at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, which was building up its soccer program. She captained her team to its first conference title. While at the academy, she also got a chance to fly in the back seat of an F/A-18 Hornet, which inspired her to join the U.S. Marine Corps. She trained as a test pilot and flew more than 2,700 hours in 25 types of aircraft—including 47 combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. She ultimately rose to the rank of colonel.
She continued her education at Stanford University in California, where she earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. Meanwhile, she built a family life as she met and married U.S. Navy fighter pilot Travis Mann. The couple and their son now live in Houston, Texas.
Despite all these accomplishments, Mann is open about how she has at times struggled to persevere. “To be honest, I’m not always confident,” she told CTV News, a Canadian television network. “There have definitely been moments in my career and my life where I doubted myself.”
But as she read biographies of NASA astronauts, she realized space research and exploration could be her next path. She applied to the U.S. agency and was chosen as an astronaut candidate in 2013, becoming one of only a few potential space fliers with American Indian heritage.
Mann’s leadership on the sports field and in the military made her a natural fit to command a mission to the International Space Station. Since 2000, people from many nations have lived and worked on this orbiting outpost, which strives to demonstrate how humans can prepare for future missions to the moon and Mars. During her 157-day mission in space, Mann performed two spacewalks, floating for hours at a time outside the space station while installing upgrades to the solar arrays that power the station.
Inside the station, she worked on scientific experiments, including testing ways to grow better tomatoes in space and 3D-printing human tissue as a way to explore whether organs could be grown in space for medical needs. She played with food and water, using honey to glue cold cuts onto a charcuterie board and toying with floating water droplets. Like other astronauts, she had to figure out ways to wash her hair, use the toilet and sleep in near-zero-gravity. The experience was like a dream in which you might be floating or flying, she has said.
Groups of NASA employees gathered to watch her launch to orbit and conduct her spacewalks. “For us professionals in the agency, it’s beyond exciting,” said Lauren Denson of the Chihene Nde Nation of New Mexico. She is an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and an expert in science and engineering outreach. Of Mann she said, “She’s the elite of the elite—the first Native American woman in space, and a powerful woman, a commander. She’s a huge deal in breaking barriers in different intersectional identities.”
Outside of NASA, Mann has “a great opportunity to make a difference in the lives in a lot of Native peoples,” said Chickasaw astronaut John Herrington. On a 13-day trip on the space shuttle Endeavour in 2002, he became the first enrolled tribal member to travel into space. He said, "I believe Native kids will look up to Nicole, inspired that they can pursue their dreams as well.”
Since her flight, Mann has been speaking to groups of students and others about her experiences. In her CTV News interview, she said she felt it is important for her “to talk with the young kids so they know how many possibilities they have with their future.” One of her appearances was at California Indian Days hosted in September 2023 by the Confederated Tribes of the Round Valley Indian Reservation. There she presented the tribes with a small U.S. flag that flew to space with her, a journey of more than 66 million miles.
Mann has received several honors, including being inducted into the Academic All-American Hall of Fame and receiving the 2023 Marine Corps Military Order of the Iron Mike Award and Aerospace States Association 2023 Distinguished Aerospace Service Award. As Mann waits to see what her next adventure with NASA might be, she is working on other tasks including a Boeing spacecraft that the agency hopes will serve as a space taxi to and from the International Space Station. She is also training for future space missions as part of NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to put the first woman and the first person of color on the moon in the coming years. One of those next moon-walking astronauts could be Mann.
Mann said throughout her career she has looked to her Native heritage and community for guidance and support, even when she was miles away from her family in space. She often thinks back to those six months in orbit and how they connected her to the Earth passing beneath her window. “It makes you reflect on where we all came from and how we are all living on this planet,” she told CTV News. It made her think about preserving it for future generations. “It gives you this incredible appreciation for our planet to see it in all of her majesty, but it also gives you this huge sense of fragility,” she said. “What do we need to do to take care of this planet?”