Houston Chronicle By Alex Stuckey June 22, 2018
Jeanette Epps still does not know why she was booted in January from this month's International Space Station flight, where she would have made history as the first black crew member.
But she thinks it was a decision made by someone at NASA, not their Russian partners, she told reporter Megan Gannon on Friday at the Tech Open Air Festival.
"I don't know where the decision came from and how it was made, in detail or at what level ... I seriously do not believe it was the Russians, partly because I had been through the training with them and I was able to develop good working relationships with everyone there," Epps said. "There were Russians, several of them, who defended me in the sense that its not safe to really remove someone from a crew that has trained together for years."
NASA has relied on Russia to launch its astronauts to the International Space Station, since the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011. Epps was slated to be on the Russian spacecraft, called the Soyuz, that rocketed to station earlier this month.
But in January, NASA abruptly announced that Epps was being booted from her June flight, replacing her with Serena Auñón-Chancellor, a Hispanic flight surgeon selected as an astronaut alongside Epps in 2009. Epps previously told the Houston Chronicle she did not have any medical or family issues that would have prevented her from flying.
More:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/nation-world/space/article/Jeanette-Epps-doesn-t-know-why-NASA-booted-her-13018349.php
