An African - American NASA cosmonaut who was pulled from her flight of stairs to space just months before launch says she does n’t have a go at it why her flying was canceled .
Jeanette Epps had been due to take flight to the International Space Station ( ISS ) for a six - month stay on Expedition 56 , which launched on June 6 , 2018 . In January this year , however , she wasremoved from the flightand replaced by American Serena Auñón - Chancellor , who in the first place was pass to wing in November 2018 .
Epps , who would have been the first African - American to get together the crew on the ISS , has now verbalise about the incident , pronounce she did n’t bang why she was absent .
At the Tech undetermined zephyr applied science festival in Berlin on June 21,speakingto journalist Megan Gannon , Epps said that she “ ca n’t speculate in this meeting place why that was done , but it was a decision of my direction and it is something that we ’re going to sample to work through . ”
She had give all of her training , which means that ca n’t have been the reason . And she does n’t seem to have had any medical takings .
“ Other people had been removed because of a medical thing , an chance event , ” she say . “ One person fall in a hip and had to be hit from flight , of row . But I did n’t have any aesculapian status or anything like that . And I did n’t have any class proceeds at all , either . ”
This has obviously pass to questions about why she was leave out . soon after the incident , her chum Henry Eppshad blamed“oppressive racism and misogynist [ sic ] in NASA , ” an idea that remains very controversial .
In her consultation Jeanette Epps stayed on the fence regarding this military issue , notice that there was “ no meter to really be concerned about sexism and racism and thing like that , because we have to perform . ”
She added : “ And if [ it ] comes into shimmer , then you ’re hinder the commission and you ’re obstruct the performance . So whether or not it is a factor , I ca n’t speculate what people are thinking doing [ sic ] into this meeting place unless I have a small moment more information . ”
Other African - Americans have fly to quad before , with the last being Robert Satcher in 2009 . None have been part of the work party on the ISS before though ; Epps would have been the first .
Epps remains a NASA astronaut for now , with the probability of flying again in future . But there is still likely to be intense interest around the fact she was dropped from this mission , and what the reason behind this possibly could have been .
