WHY DID NASA REMOVE THE FIRST BLACK SPACE STATION CREWMEMBER?

Jeanette Epps isn't divulging any details about why NASA last week removed her from a summer mission to the International Space Station - but she hinted to the Houston Chronicle Tuesday morning that more information may soon become available.

"I can't speak about what is happening yet," Epps wrote in a Twitter message Tuesday. "I will be available for interview at a later date."

Epps was slated to be the first black astronaut to live in space until Thursday evening, when NASA announced she was being replaced by Serena Auñón-Chancellor, a Hispanic flight surgeon selected as an astronaut alongside Epps in 2009.

The space agency did not offer an explanation, a decision that resulted in charges of racism erupting across social media. An online petition, which had more than 1,900 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon, was created, demanding both answers and her reinstatement.

In her Twitter message, Epps said she has no medical issue or family problems that would have prevented her from flying in June.

Epps, from Syracuse, N.Y., worked for the Central Intelligence Agency for seven years before joining NASA as an astronaut in 2009. She would have been the 15th African American astronaut to fly in space, according to the space agency.

In its announcement last week, NASA said Epps would return to the Astronaut Office at Johnson and would be considered for future space missions. Her replacement, Auñón-Chancellor, earned her medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston and is board certified in internal and aerospace medicine.