MERRITT ISLAND, Florida (Achieve3000, May 12, 2022). Jessica Watkins' career has taken off…into space! On April 27, 2022, she blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 33-year-old is part of an astronaut crew that will work and live on the International Space Station (ISS) for six months.
Watkins has been dreaming about going to space since she was a child. Her trip is a high point in her life and career. She is the first Black woman to spend several months on the ISS. And that's an important event for NASA. Why is that? In the early days of NASA, all the astronauts were White men. It stayed that way through the 1960s.
NASA began encouraging women and people of color to join its astronaut program more than 50 years ago. But it took time for change to come. It wasn't until 1992 that Mae Jemison became the first Black woman to go to space. Others followed. Watkins believes that these pioneering leaders blazed a path for her own success. She says that she is "building on the foundation that was laid by the Black woman astronauts who've come before me."
So how did Watkins get started on her journey to the ISS? Her interest in space was sparked during elementary school. She was drawn to geology at an early age, even calling herself a "rock nerd." Her parents supported her interests. They encouraged her to learn all she could about them.
As she grew older, Watkins continued to study science. She earned a PhD in geology. Then she worked at the California Institute of Technology. She planned the activities of a NASA Mars rover. She also studied the red planet's Gale Crater.
But studying space wasn't enough. Watkins wanted to go there herself. She applied for NASA's astronaut class of 2017. About 18,300 other people did too. But Watkins made the cut! She spent the next five years doing intense training to get ready for missions. This included learning how to do science in a weightless environment. Finally, it was her turn to rocket into space.
Watkins' trip to the ISS probably won't be her last voyage. She is one of the astronauts in NASA's Artemis program. It aims to put people back on the moon by 2025. That means she could be the first woman to walk on the moon.
Watkins has some words of wisdom on how to reach lofty goals. She believes it's important to keep putting one foot in front of the other. "If you put enough of those footprints together," she says, "eventually they become a path towards your dreams."
Which is the closest antonym for the word intense, as it is used in the article?
A.easy
B.special
C.dangerous
D.unusual