In the 55 years of space travel, fewer than 550 people have journeyed out of earth's orbit. Mae Jemison is one of them.
More than 20 years ago, Jemison became the first African-American woman in space aboard the Endeavour space shuttle. Today, she is working to extend human space travel beyond our solar system.
"In order to do space exploration, you have to push further than the things that we know how to do now," Jemison told CNBC's On The Money in an interview.
Jemison is the principal of "100 Year Starship," a joint initiative between the Dept. of Defense and NASA working to achieve human interstellar travel in the next century.
Having been in space, does she believe life could exist on other planets?
"I don't know that having been in space gives me a better idea of whether life might exist on other planets," Jemison said with a laugh.
"The reality is that we know that this universe, that our galaxy, has billions of stars. We know that stars have planets," she said. "So the likelihood that there is life somewhere else to me is just absolutely there."