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Nearly six years after entering the elite US astronauts, a Caribou native will finally realize her dream of despising the little blue ball we all call home.
Jessica Meir, 40, will be elevating to the International Space Station on September 25, aboard Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka and Emirati astronaut Hazz Al Mansouri, NASA announced Wednesday morning. This will mark his first space flight. She will return to Earth in the spring of 2020.
My incredible #spacewalk instructor and I exploited our shared #Maine pride of yesterday's formation @NASA_Johnson #NeutralBuoyancyLab, a first-rate facility where we practice for the work we will do outside @Space station pic.twitter.com/oPIl7pcklu
– Jessica Meir (@Astro_Jessica) April 11, 2019
Meir, a Caribou High School promotion specialist from 1995, was one of three women and four men selected from 6,100 candidates in 2013 for the 21st NASA astronaut promotion and to begin training for future flights. space. This took place only four years after Meir's first request, but was rejected by NASA's 20th class of astronauts.
"It did not work for me at that time," Meir told students at Caribou High School in 2016. "I was told that I had done a great job and that I I did not hurt, but I was not chosen. At this point, I could easily give up and decide not to apply anymore because I did not want to be rejected again. …
"Fortunately, I persevered and persevered. Just in the back of my head, knowing that it was the dream that I had had all my life, I could not not apply. I was just not ready to give up for the moment. "
In many ways, Meir's selection to join the space program began very early in his life. Meir attended the Purdue University Space Camp in Indiana before starting her first year at Caribou High School. She also participated in a six-week summer camp at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida between her second year and the junior at Brown University in Rhode Island.
"Science has interested me from a very young age," Meir told BDN in 2013. "Biology and physiology mainly interested me, as well as spaceflight. I still had a lot of interest in space activities. could."
V. Crobu | ESA
In July 2016, Jessica Meir, originally from Caribou, was one of six astronauts from five countries to perform a six-day expedition to a network of caves in Sardinia, Italy, to train her to live and work. work with a small team in an environment in another world.
Meir holds a degree in biology from Brown University, a master's degree in space studies from the International Space University in Illkirch, France, and a PhD. in marine biology from the San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography, according to NASA.
As part of her research, she spent time in the underwater habitats of Aquarius off Key Largo, Florida, went to Antarctica to study the adaptation of emperor penguins to long dives. underwater and even raised a flock of flying geese at high altitude to determine the abilities of these birds. withstand the physiological pressures of flights that take them over and over the Himalayas.
Meir previously worked for the Lockheed Martin Human Research Center, participated in reduced gravity search flights, participated in diving expeditions to Antarctica and Belize and served as an analog flight crew member in the framework of a NASA underwater mission for missions in extreme conditions and a European space agency. mission, according to NASA.
Bill Stafford | NASA
Even while wearing a space suit of 350 pounds, astronaut Jessica Meir was floating in a pool at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, where she practiced tasks that she could perform at the International Space Station, January 23, 2017.
Although she has not yet left Earth's atmosphere, Meir's training at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab at the Johnson Space Center in Texas gave her insight. As part of this training, Meir donned a 250 kg pressurized space suit before descending into a 20-meter deep basin in order to work on a life-size replica of part of the space station .
"It's certainly the hardest thing we do, but it's also the most rewarding," she told BDN in 2017 when discussing her monthly sessions at the buoyancy lab. "We practice in the pool things we could do later on the space station."
[Caribou native astronaut featured in NASA video, after her epic Twitter ‘mansplaining’ incident]
Meir is one of the most distinguished graduates of Caribou High School, with Gregory H. Johnson, a four-star naval admiral; Olof Pierson, who is credited with the invention of frozen french fries; and Susan Collins, a Republican who represents Maine in the US Senate. In 2016, Meir was inducted into the High School Hall of Fame, according to Aroostook Republican & News.
When she spoke to school students in 2016, Meir urged them to continue expanding their vision and perception as they all realize their dreams, much like she did. had done in the years preceding his entry into the space program.
"Here we are in Caribou, which is both home and at home, but when you think of your home, you usually think about your home, your neighborhood and your family, and when you look at this fragile blue ball seen from the outside. the space, that's the house too. Everyone is at home, "she said. "For me, it has always been my dream: to be in space and see this giant blue ball below me."
Meir is one of only three Maine natives to become astronauts, the others being Christopher Cassidy, a graduate of York High School who has made six outings to space and served as chief astronaut of the nation from 2013 to 2017, and Charles O. Hobaugh, from Bar Harbor, who flew three space flights. Bridget Ziegelaar, a graduate of Old Town High School, is responsible for research integration operations for the International Space Station at NASA.
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