As an undergraduate, Watkins worked at the
Ames Research Center to support the
Mars Phoenix lander and prototype Mars drill testing. In 2009, she was chief geologist for the NASA Spaceward Bound Crew 86 at the
Mars Desert Research Station. As a graduate student, she worked at the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory on the
NEOWISE project to survey near-Earth asteroids. Watkins also worked on planning for the Mars rover
Curiosity. She also contributed to the design of the prospective Uranus orbiter
OCEANUS in 2016. In June 2017, Watkins was selected as a member of
NASA Astronaut Group 22 and began her two-year training in August. In December 2020, she was selected to be a part of the
Artemis Team to return humans to the Moon. At the time, 2025 was the target date for the crewed lunar landing mission; since then, there has been
schedule creep to
no earlier than 2027. In November 2021, she became the 4th astronaut of
Group 22, and first Black woman, to be assigned a long-duration mission to the
International Space Station (ISS) after being chosen as the final member of
SpaceX Crew-4, which launched in April 2022. It was Watkins’ first time in space. She served as a mission specialist for the six-month mission. On April 23, 2026, NASA announced that Watkins was assigned to fly on
SpaceX Crew-13 mission in September 2026 to become part of the ISS Expedition 75/76 crew. She is the commander of the Crew-13 mission. It will be her second mission to the station as well as becoming NASA's first astronaut to ride on a Crew Dragon twice.
NEEMO 23 Watkins participated in
NEEMO mission 23 from June 10 to 22, 2019. This mission tested technologies and objectives for deep space mission and lunar explorations on the seafloor. Watkins’ NEEMO mission was the first of its kind to feature an all-female research team led by Italian astronaut
Samantha Cristoforetti. ==Personal life==