It took Jessica Meir three attempts until she was finally selected for NASA’s competetive astronaut training program in 2013. Now Meir is preparing for her first space mission.
Meir’s mother hails from Sweden; her father is an Iraqi-Israeli who fought in the 1948 War of Independence; the astronaut holds both Swedish and American citizenship. On Sept. 25, she will co-pilot a Soyuz spacecraft from Kazakhstan with Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka. They will be joined by Hazzaa Ali Almansoori, the first astronaut from the United Arab Emirates.
At the International Space Station, Meir will perform a physiological, medical and chemistry experiments to better understand the ways in which being in space affects humans. She also hopes to explore outside the space station.
“[M]y dream has always been to go for a spacewalk,” said Meir. “There’s never a guarantee — things can always change with the mission when we get up there — but right now per the current plan I will be doing spacewalks as well.”
Read more on JTA