NASA astronaut Nicole A. Mann made history last week, becoming not only the first Native American woman in space, but also the first woman to command a Crew Dragon capsule. Mann is enrolled in Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes in northern California and is a colonel in the US Marine Corps. She served as a test pilot in the F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet and was deployed twice aboard aircraft carriers in support of combat operations in both Iraq and Afghanastan.             "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."                                                  This six month mission is the latest stage in commercial and public space exploration.