Nicole Aunapu Mann, the mission commander, will be the first Native American woman to travel to space when NASA's next crew flies on a SpaceX Dragon this fall.

Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina, NASA astronaut Josh Cassada, and astronaut Koichi Wakata from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will be her copilots on the Crew-5 mission.

Mann's trip to the International Space Station is scheduled to launch on September 29. According to NASA, this is her first spaceflight.

Mann is a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps. He grew up in California and went to the U.S. Naval Academy. 

She got her pilot's license while she was in the Navy, and she flew missions in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan during her two deployments on aircraft carriers. She also got a Master of Science in mechanical engineering from Stanford.

Mann was one of eight astronaut candidates chosen by NASA in June 2013 to serve in the 21st astronaut class, which would first focus on space station operations before considering assignments to missions to the moon, near-Earth asteroids, or eventually Mars.

Being the first Native American woman in space, Mann recently told Indian Country Today, "it's extremely amazing, I think it's important that we communicate this to our community, so that other Native kids, if they thought maybe that this was not a possibility or to realize that some of those barriers that used to be there are really starting to get broken down."

While Mann will go down in history, Chickasaw Nation member John Herrington, a NASA astronaut, was the first Native American to travel to space when he sailed on the Space Shuttle Endeavor in 2002.

Mann received extensive training from NASA in the systems of the International Space Station, spacewalks, robotics, physiological training, T-38 flying training, and water and wilderness survival. He also received education in the Russian language.

Two Air Medals, two Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals, and two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals are among the many honors Mann has received.

"I have some special gifts for my family, which I can't say because they're a surprise. Definitely taking my wedding rings, and I have this dream catcher that my mother gave me when I was very young," Mann told Indian Country Today.