Penngrove woman selected to test new space capsule

Growing up in Penngrove, Nicole Aunapu Mann racked up stellar athletic and academic achievements. Now Mann, 41, is slated for one astronomical accomplishment - a trip to space aboard the first crewed American spaceship since NASA retired the space shuttle in 2011.

Mann, a Rancho Cotate High School graduate who became an astronaut in 2013, was one of nine Americans selected to test NASA’s new crewed space capsules, the U.S. space agency announced Friday.

She will be aboard Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner when it makes its first test flight into orbit next year.

“I couldn’t be more excited to join the @BoeingSpace team!” she said in a tweet. “I’m looking forward to strapping into the Starliner and launching into space from the Cape! #LaunchAmerica.”

A graduate of Stanford and the U.S. Naval Academy, Mann joined the U.S. Marine Corps, where she served as a test pilot and an operations officer, among other roles. With the Marines, she fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and flew a total of more than 2,500 hours on 47 combat missions.

In June 2013, Mann joined the elite pool of 350 Americans, including just 57 women, who have been selected for NASA’s astronaut candidate program since it began in 1959. The rigorous 2-year course at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, includes intensive training in International Space Station systems, spacewalks, Russian language, robotics, physiological training, and water and wilderness survival skills, according to NASA’s website.

A scuba diver, skier and hiker, Mann, at 5 feet 5 inches tall and 130 pounds, thrives on challenges. She met her Navy pilot husband, Travis Mann, in flight school in 2002, and they married in 2009. Their son, Jackson, is 6 years old.

When she was selected for the astronaut candidate program, she told the Press Democrat at the time that it was, “definitely a dream come true.”

“I liked the idea of being part of something that was bigger than me,” Mann said at the time.

NASA has partnered with Boeing and SpaceX on the next generation of human space flight. Since the space shuttle stopped flying in 2011, American astronauts have hitched lifts into space on Russian capsules.

The Boeing Starliner is scheduled for its test launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, by the middle of 2019. Besides Mann, the other crew members will be NASA astronaut Eric Boe and Boeing executive Chris Ferguson, the space agency said.

“Today, our country’s dreams of greater achievements in space are within our grasp,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said, according to a statement. “This accomplished group of American astronauts, flying on new spacecraft developed by our commercial partners Boeing and SpaceX, will launch a new era of human spaceflight. Today’s announcement advances our great American vision and strengthens the nation’s leadership in space.”

Mann will become the first woman to be part of the inaugural flight of a U.S. spacecraft, according to NASA.

“It’s absolutely an opportunity of a lifetime,” she said in a statement. “To be involved in the test and development and to be there on launch day, and to experience the results of all that hard work, it’s going to be a proud moment for the team and for America. As a test pilot, it doesn’t get any better than this.”

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)