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And then I do have this dream catcher that my mother gave me long ago. MANN: I do have some personal mementos, you know, jewelry charms that I plan to bring. Is there anything special to you that you're planning on bringing with you? When astronaut John Herrington became the first Native man in space, he brought the Chickasaw Nation flag. Personally, I know that you're able to bring a few items from home.
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SHAPIRO: Operationally, it doesn't matter. And the cool thing is, though, operationally, it doesn't really matter, which is pretty cool, right? We're finally getting to that point in our history. And so hopefully that will inspire that younger generation. And I think it's really great to celebrate those and to communicate that, especially to the younger generation, right? These young women, maybe Natives, maybe people from different backgrounds that realize that they have these opportunities and potentially these barriers that used to be there are starting to be broken down. You know, it's so fun, I think, in our lifetime when you have firsts. You're going to be the first Native woman in space. SHAPIRO: Well, you are also, of course, making history. They're really hoping to have trials in animals by the end of the decade. And eventually the concept is that we could grow organs. We have already produced a partial meniscus of a knee, and we're looking at growing heart cells.
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We could grow cells here on Earth, but because of the effects of gravity in space, we can grow them three dimensionally. Essentially, it's 3D printing human tissue. MANN: The biofabrication lab is personally one of my favorites, and I'm very excited to work with that. SHAPIRO: I read about something called the biofabrication lab. We are doing some upgrades of the solar arrays, so hopefully we get a chance to do a couple spacewalks while we're up there. There'll be a lot of work on the space station. They're planning about 250 experiments for us. Of course, we're going to be doing some amazing science on board. Everything - there's so many things to choose from. SHAPIRO: There's a lot that you can do in six months. Myself, along with Josh Cassada, Koichi Wakata and Anna Kikina - and we will travel to the International Space Station for a six-month mission, and then, at the completion of that mission, we will return home on Dragon off the coast of Florida. It's called Crew-5, and it will launch from Kennedy Space Center. We have been training a long time for this mission. SHAPIRO: Well, if all goes well, by the end of next month, you will be on the International Space Station or at least headed there. She is a member of the Wailaki of the Round Valley Indian tribes and joins us now. She has a master's in engineering from Stanford and is now a NASA astronaut. All of which means she will be going where no Native woman has gone before - to space. She is officially mission commander on the SpaceX Dragon, she will be Expedition 68 flight engineer on the International Space Station, and she may even go to the moon.