© Bill Stafford; NASA/SpaceX
Watkins was born on 14 May 1988 in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Her family moved to Lafayette, Colorado, where she attended Fairview High School. After high school, Watkins enrolled at Stanford University in California, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in geological and environmental sciences. At Stanford, Watkins also played rugby, playing on national teams and even placing third at the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens with the USA Eagles. Watkins later earned a PhD in geology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She conducted undergraduate internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California, studying analogue Mars soil to support the Phoenix Mars lander mission.
In 2017, Watkins was selected as part of NASA’s new astronaut candidate class. Her training lasted about two years and consisted of scientific and technical instruction that included extensive coverage of the systems aboard the International Space Station, as well as information about spacewalks. This preparation also involved physiological training, practice flying T-38 supersonic jets, geology training, what NASA refers to as ‘expeditionary skills’ training and training in water and wilderness survival. This survival training has previously included activities like camping with an emphasis on survival as opposed to leisure. In 2019, Watkins completed another analogue mission as part of her astronaut training. During this mission, Watkins worked as an aquanaut crew member at the underwater Aquarius habitat off the coast of Florida as part of the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) 23 mission.