NASA's Swedish-Israeli astronaut prepares for first space trip

JTA – Jessica Meir is about to go into space since she was 5 years old. She attended her first camp in space after completing college and followed a training program at the Kennedy Space Center, after her second year at Brown University.

It took Meir three tries to be part of NASA's highly selective NASA astronaut training program, launched in 2013 and graduated two years later. Last month, NASA announced that Meir would participate in his first mission.

It still seems surreal, she told the Jewish Telegraph Agency during a phone interview at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

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"[When] I'm sitting on the rocket that is about to launch, it's really at that moment that it will finally settle, "said the 41-year-old astronaut.

On September 25, Meir co-piloted a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from Kazakhstan with Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka. Hazzaa Ali Almansoori, the first United Arab Emirates astronaut, will join them.

Meir, daughter of a Swedish mother and an Israeli-Iraqi father, is a Swedish and American citizen. She will be the first Swedish woman, the fourth Jewish woman and the fifteenth Jewish to be part of a space mission.

The mission will visit the International Space Station, where Meir will conduct various physiological, medical and chemical experiments to better understand the effects of being in space on human beings. Meir also hopes to explore outside the space station.

"I am very excited to participate in science. And also, personally, my dream has always been to go out into space, "she said. "There is never a guarantee – things can always change with the mission when we go up – but for the moment, according to the current plan, I will also go out into space."

Meir spent the last year preparing for the mission. This includes learning Russian and training trips to Russia. She ran on an anti-gravity treadmill used to prevent muscle loss in the space. She had to analyze her food intake and various medical tests were done.

She documents all this on her Instagram page.

The youngest of five children, Meir spent her childhood in Caribou, Maine, although her parents grew up far away. His late father was born in Iraq but immigrated with his family to prepare for Israel from his childhood, before fighting in the country's independence war in 1948. He later became a doctor and found a job in Sweden, where he met with Meir's mother. , a nurse who was raised in a Swedish Christian family. The couple moved to Maine when Meir's father was offered a job.

Although Meir's mother did not convert, the family identified as Jewish and frequented the synagogue in the nearby town of Presque Isle. Living in a predominantly Christian city, Meir sometimes felt different but did not experience anti-Semitism.

She says being Jewish is an important part of her identity.

"Personally, I'm not really a religious person," she said, "but I think that my Jewish cultural background is an integral part of my culture and in particular my traditions."

Astronauts are allowed to bring a number of personal items to the International Space Station. Two of Meir's choices: an Israeli flag and a pair of menorah socks. (She is a big fan of fancy socks and will include several pairs among her possessions destined for the station.)

His piccolo too. Meir, a music lover who also plays piano, flute and saxophone, decided to bring the instrument because of its small size.

Meir does not know what interested her in space travel. As a child, she did not know anyone who worked for NASA.

"Growing up, if you asked one of my childhood friends, one of my friends in college or elsewhere, people always talked to me about it, they always knew that it was Was my thing, that's what I wanted to do, "she says.

As part of her postdoctoral work at the University of British Columbia, Meir spent some time in Antarctica studying a different type of flight, that of the goose-necked goose. Previously, she had studied oxygen depletion in Antarctic Emperor penguins; the subject was not totally irrelevant.

The international co-operation that has made possible, especially for the International Space Station, a joint project of the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Japan, Europe and Canada, is particularly noteworthy for its mission.

"To have this opportunity to live and work in Russia, to train alongside the cosmonauts and to embark with the Russians," she said, "for me, it's really very amazing especially given the current climate. "