Jessica Meir | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Born | Jessica Ulrika Meir (1977-07-01)July 1, 1977 (age 48) Caribou, Maine, U.S. |
| Citizenship |
|
| Education | |
| Space career | |
| NASA astronaut | |
Time in space | 204d 15h 19m |
| Selection | NASA Group 21 (2013) |
TotalEVAs | 3 |
Total EVA time | 21h 44m |
| Missions | Soyuz MS-15 (Expedition 61/62) |
Mission insignia |   |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | Blood Oxygen Transport and Depletion: The Key of Consummate Divers (2009) |
| Doctoral advisor | Paul Ponganis |
| Other academic advisors | Bill Milsom (postdoc) Gerald Kooyman[1] |
Jessica Ulrika Meir (IPA:/mɪər/;meer;[2] born(1977-07-01)July 1, 1977) is an AmericanNASA astronaut, marine biologist, and physiologist. She was previously an assistant professor of anesthesia atHarvard Medical School,Massachusetts General Hospital,Boston, followingpostdoctoral research incomparative physiology at theUniversity of British Columbia.[3][4] She has studied the diving physiology and behavior ofemperor penguins inAntarctica,[5] and the physiology ofbar-headed geese, which are able to migrate over theHimalayas.[6] In September 2002, Meir served as anaquanaut on theNASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations 4 (NEEMO 4) crew.[7] In 2013, she was selected by NASA toAstronaut Group 21. In 2016, Meir participated inESA CAVES, a training course in which international astronauts train in a space-analogue cave environment.[8] Meir launched on September 25, 2019, to theISS onboardSoyuz MS-15, where she served as a flight Engineer duringExpedition 61 and62.[9] On October 18, 2019, Meir andChristina Koch were the first women to participate in an all-femalespacewalk.
Meir was included inTime magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2020.[10]
Meir was born inCaribou, Maine, to Josef H. Meir, an Israeli ofIraqi-Jewish descent,[11][12] and Ulla-Britt Meir fromSweden.[13] Her father was born inBaghdad,Iraq in 1925. His family left in 1931 because ofantisemitism, moving to BritishMandatory Palestine. Studying medicine at theAmerican University of Beirut when the1948 Arab–Israeli War broke out, he returned toIsrael and drove an ambulance. After the war he completed his medical studies at theUniversity of Geneva.[11][12][2] While working as a physician in Sweden he met Ulla-Britt Karlsson, a nurse fromVästerås who had grown up as aChristian. The couple moved to the US so that Josef could take up a medical residency atJohns Hopkins Hospital. While there he was offered a job in Caribou where Meir was born. Her mother did not convert toJudaism but Meir identifies as culturally Jewish, attendedsynagogue while growing up, and had abat mitzvah.[2][14]
She was inspired to venture into space after watching theSpace Shuttle missions on television. Meir knew no one who worked for NASA or for the space program. She attributes her abiding dream of personally participating in space exploration to the love of nature she learned from her mother, and from her father's predilection for wandering and adventure. "And it might have had something to do with the fact that the stars shone so brightly in rural Maine", Meir added.[2]
At the age of 13, Meir attended a youth space camp atPurdue University.[15][16][17] During her undergraduate biology studies atBrown University,[18] she also spent a semester studying atStockholm University inSweden during her undergraduate years,[19] and ran a student experiment on a NASAreduced gravity aircraft "vomit comet" in her senior year.[2][16] Meir graduated from Brown in 1999 with a Bachelor of Science degree inbiology,magna cum laude.[20] In 2000, Meir graduated with a Master of Space Studies from theInternational Space University inStrasbourg, France.[21]
Meir earned a Ph.D. inmarine biology in 2009 from theScripps Institution of Oceanography for research on thediving physiology ofemperor penguins andnorthern elephant seals.[20][22][23] Meir performed field work atPenguin Ranch onMcMurdo Sound inAntarctica to study the diving abilities of the emperor penguin whilescuba diving alongside them under the ice.[24][23] She also studied elephant seals while they were diving in thePacific Ocean offNorthern California.[23]
Meir did post-doctoral research at theUniversity of British Columbia, raisingbar-headed geese so their tolerance of high altitude and low oxygen levels during flight over theHimalayas could be studied in a controlled environment.[6][23] For the 2012 academic year she continued her research as an assistant professor ofanesthesia at the Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital and then took a leave of absence to enter the astronaut corps.[25]
After getting her master's degree, Meir worked from 2000 to 2003 forLockheed Martin Space Operations as an experiment support scientist for the Human Research Facility at theNASAJohnson Space Center (JSC) inHouston, Texas.[26][27] Meir coordinated and supported human space life science experiments that were performed byastronauts onSpace Shuttle andInternational Space Station (ISS) missions. These experiments included physiological studies (bone loss, muscle control/atrophy, lung function, etc.) to determine if any bodily processes were altered in the spaceflight environment. Meir guided these experiments through the necessary review cycles, developed procedures that the astronauts would use on-orbit, trained crew members, and provided ground support in the Mission Control Center while the astronauts were performing the experiments on the shuttle or ISS.[19]
In September 2002, Meir served as anaquanaut on the joint NASA-NOAANEEMO 4 expedition (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations), an exploration research mission held inAquarius, anundersea research laboratory four miles off shore fromKey Largo. Meir and her crewmates spent five dayssaturation diving from the Aquarius habitat as aspace analogue for working and training under extreme environmental conditions. The mission was delayed due toHurricane Isadore, forcing National Undersea Research Center managers to shorten it to an underwater duration of five days. Then, three days into their underwater mission, the crew members were told thatTropical Storm Lili was headed in their direction and to prepare for an early departure from Aquarius. Fortunately, Lili degenerated to the point where it was no longer a threat, so the crew was able to remain the full five days.[7][28]
At the time of NEEMO 4, Meir was leaning toward pursuing aPhD in a field related toevolutionary biology and/or life inextreme environments (astrobiology). She was also fascinated bymarine biology (which suited theNEEMO mission well), and hoped to coordinate a specific topic of study to combine these main interests.[19] She received her PhD in marine biology fromScripps Institution of Oceanography, studying diving physiology, in 2009.[26]
In 2009, Meir was a semi-finalist for selection toNASA Astronaut Group 20.[29] For the next selection group in June 2013, Meir was chosen as one of eight astronaut candidates for training inNASA Astronaut Group 21.[4] She completed training in July 2015.[30]
In 2016, she participated[31][32] in theESA CAVES[8] mission[33][34] of theEuropean Space Agency alongsideRicky Arnold,Sergei Korsakov,Aki Hoshide,Ye Guangfu andPedro Duque.
During her time in the astronaut office, Meir has served as thecapsule communicator for various missions. She was the lead capsule communicator forExpedition 47, theBEAM mission, and aHTV (Japanese Space Agency cargo vehicle) mission.[35]
Meir is a member of the science advisory board of Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation.[36]
In April 2019 NASA announced that Meir had been assigned to the crew ofInternational Space StationExpedition 61/62 as flight engineer, scheduled to launch aboardSoyuz MS-15 alongsideRoscosmos cosmonautOleg Skripochka andMBRSC astronautHazza Al Mansouri, who flew a short duration mission and landed with the crew ofSoyuz MS-12 eight days after launch.[37]
.jpg)
Meir, Skripochka and Al Mansouri launched aboard MS-15 on September 25, 2019, marking the final flight of theSoyuz-FG rocket and final launch from theGagarin's Start launch pad, both of which were retired following launch of Soyuz MS-15. The crew successfully reached orbit and rendezvoused with the ISS only six hours later.[38] Soyuz MS-15 docked to the ISS at the very end ofExpedition 60, meaning it marked an unusual period on the station where there were nine people aboard. The reason for this was to allow for Al Mansouri's flight, in which he became the first person from theUnited Arab Emirates to fly in space. Expedition 60 ended on October 3, 2019, when Al Mansouri, alongside Soyuz MS-12 crew membersAleksey Ovchinin andNick Hague, undocked from the station and returned to Earth, returning the ISS to normal six-crew operations during Expedition 61.[39]
.jpg)
During Expedition 61, Meir was scheduled to perform three spacewalks during this mission to help install newlithium-ion batteries on the Port-6 truss structure of the ISS, although this schedule was later changed.[40][41] On October 18, 2019, Meir performed her first spacewalk alongside her colleagueChristina Koch, replacing a faulty Battery Charging Discharging Unit. The unit had unexpectedly failed to activate, preventing the station's newly installed lithium-ion batteries from providing additional power.[42] The three other scheduled spacewalks scheduled to install the new batteries had to be postponed in order to perform this spacewalk.[41]The spacewalk lasted seven hours and 17 minutes, and was the first all-female spacewalk in history.[43][44][45] During the spacewalk US presidentDonald Trump called and spoke to the astronauts in recognition of the historical significance of this event, being corrected by Meir after mistakenly announcing the event as the first time a woman was outside the space station.[46]
On February 6, 2020, Koch, alongside Soyuz MS-13 crew membersAleksandr Skvortsov andLuca Parmitano, returned to Earth, following which Meir, Skripochka andAndrew Morgan transferred over to Expedition 62. Due to delays with NASA'sCommercial Crew Program, most of this increment was spent as a crew of three. During the final eight days of the Expedition, the crew was joined by the three person crew ofSoyuz MS-16, Russian cosmonautsAnatoli Ivanishin andIvan Vagner joined by NASA astronautChristopher Cassidy, who launched and docked to the station on April 9, 2020.[47] Although their time as a six-person crew was short, the expanded Expedition 62 crew made the most of their time together, conducting experiments on how muscles react to long duration spaceflight as part of NASA's Muscle tone in space (Myotones) experiment.[48] On April 13 Meir and Cassidy, both Maine natives, participated in a live conference with several students from around Maine;[49] the two, joined by Andrew Morgan, also participated in a segment ofSome Good News, an internet show hosted by American actorJohn Krasinski to spread good news during theCOVID-19 pandemic.[50]
.jpg)
On April 17, 2020, Meir, joined by Skripochka and Morgan, returned to Earth aboard Soyuz MS-15, wrapping up a 205-day spaceflight for Meir and Skripochka and returning Morgan from a 272-day flight. The Soyuz capsule touched down near the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, at 11:16am local time.[51] The departure of the three crew members signaled the start ofExpedition 63, commanded by Cassidy.[52]
Meir playedflute,piccolo, andsaxophone in her youth, and enjoys reading classical literature. She enjoys recreational cycling, hiking, running, skiing, soccer and scuba diving, and holds a private pilot's license.[26]
Apart from English andRussian (required for astronaut training), she also speaksSwedish.[35] Although Meir's nationality is American, due to also holdingSwedishcitizenship by virtue of her mother's country of birth, she is technically the first Swedish female citizenship-holder in space and the second Swedish citizen in space overall after ESA astronautChrister Fuglesang.[53][54][55]
Astronauts are allowed to bring a number of personal items to the International Space Station, and two among Meir's choices were anIsraeli flag and a pair of novelty socks withStars of David andmenorahs.[14][56] Most of Meir's relatives from her father's side reside in Israel.[2] Meir has visitedIsrael twice: the first time as a teenager with her parents and her brother, and the second time in 2016 for work as an astronaut where she gave a talk inHaifa, Israel, at theInternational Space University summer session.[2] Among other things, she also took pictures of Israel from space.[56]
OnInternational Women's Day in 2023, Meir announced the recent birth of her first child, a girl, on her Instagram account.[57][58] Her partner and co-parent is Duke Brady, an artist and biologist who grew up in Hawaii. He has appeared on two seasons of theNaked and Afraid series.[59]
Awards granted to Meir include:[26]
NASA Astronaut Group 20 ← NASA Astronaut Group 21 →NASA Astronaut Group 22 | |||||||
| |||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| Academics | |
