1179 by Jewish News

Jewish News 8 October 2020

Weekend / Jewish News meets... Jessica Meir

One year on, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir tells Francine Wolfisz what it was like to be part of the first all-female spacewalk and how she aims to become the first woman on the Moon

to the safety of the ISS. hen Jessica Meir was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, there was barely any hesitation. Having overcome the most challenging She picked up her crayons and began drawing – and dangerous – of tasks performed by a picture of an astronaut standing on the Moon. astronauts, Meir ensured she took the time to Now aged 42, Meir – born to a Swedish mother and Israeli father appreciate being in space and looking at the beauty of Iraqi-Jewish descent – has partly made that dream come true, of Earth from hundreds of miles above the planet. having become a NASA astronaut and one that literally stepped In fact, she orbited the Earth more than 3,000 times, but never her way into the history books when she took part in the first all- grew tired of her spectacular view from the Cupola, the station’s female spacewalk, alongside Christina Koch, on 18 October 2019. panoramic control tower, from where she took stunning footage of Nearly a year on, American-born Meir, who has also studied lightning storms and tidal waves, as well as images of continents marine biology and physiology, is still processing that special illuminated at night by the Moon. “We saw all the different colours and textures of sand dunes in moment and what it really meant for her. “I knew it was a big deal, but didn’t think it would become the Africa and the Middle East, beautiful glaciers over the Patagonian ice big deal that it did,” admits a modest Meir, now back to Earth after field. Even after seven months, when I was in that incredible viewing spending seven months in space, during a candid chat over the phone. court with windows all around looking down, I would really pinch “But for whatever reason, this first all-female spacewalk really myself and think how can this be real? I’m floating and I’m looking ignited enthusiasm and inspired people in a way I hadn’t seen for down at the earth. It was just like looking at art,” she explains. She acknowledges how strange it a very long time. was to look down at a planet that, in the “That meant so much, not from a brief duration of her time spent away, personal standpoint, but for the sake of had been overtaken by Covid-19. science and for NASA that people were “It was so surreal to think this paying attention to us. It touched them in pandemic was affecting all 7.5 billion so many ways, from looking at us as role people on the planet, except just us. models or as people fulfilling a dream.” “When we finally came back to The significance of two women Earth in April and the hatches opened, stepping out that day from the hatch of we hadn’t seen any other humans for the International Space Station (ISS) seven months and then we saw all these during Expedition 61 also had a propeople wearing masks. It was such an found effect on Meir. odd feeling. It was, she says, a moment of “tribute” “Having not had gravity for so long, to the generations before her that fought you feel like you’re returning to this for greater opportunities for women. alien environment, but this made us She explains: “We as women and other Jessica photographs the Earth from the Cupola realise even more we had come back to minorities have not always had a seat at the table and we still don’t, we still have a way to go in a lot of different a completely different planet.” While coronavirus exaggerated how distant Meir must have felt realms, but I’ve been able to benefit from the struggle of generations before me. That for me was the biggest thing – that I could picture while up in space, she was at least able to take comfort from some those women who had pushed the boundaries and enabled us to go of the personal items she had brought with her from home. Among them was a postcard from Yad Vashem with an artistic out the hatch that day together. We did it as a tribute to them.” Nearly 12 months on, Meir is understandably proud of making image drawn by a Holocaust survivor. The picture showed a man history that day, but she tells me her only focus in the minutes and with a telescope looking up at the stars. “It just seemed really fitting, that image of everybody being hours leading up to her spacewalk was on “getting the job done” – a task that became all the more acute after one of the station’s bat- together under the same sky. Despite the horrendous circumstances of the Holocaust, or the difficult times we are facing now tery units unexpectedly failed. In fact, Meir and Koch’s spacewalk was not even one of the three with Covid, it was impossible not to feel like we are connected as that had been scheduled during their time in space, but rather one one people, that we’re in this together.” Meir also took with her a painting by Rona Ramon, the wife of that NASA had just two days to prepare. To say the pressure was on is an understatement. “If we hadn’t Ilan Ramon, Israel’s first astronaut who was tragically killed in the been successful, we would have been down a power channel on the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster of 2003. “He was a hero and still is such a hero,” says Meir, who was working at NASA with the life space station, which is pretty significant,” she says. Making history was far from Meir’s mind, as was any notion of science team when the tragedy happened. Four years ago, she visited Israel for an event and hoped to meet “being afraid for my life or afraid that something’s going to happen to me,” she gestures. “I’d say the only fear I had was just the fear of up with Rona, but it didn’t work out. “I really regret I didn’t have the chance to meet her,” says Meir, who hopes to revisit Israel next year. making a mistake and disappointing the teams on the ground. As for the future, she may have just come back to terra firma, but “Christina and I were up there, driving the bolts and moving the hardware around, but they were the ones who had put in hours of Meir’s already setting her sights on returning to space – and, this time, her goal is one that harks back to her childhood dream: the Moon. work to come up with a plan of what we were going to do.” “With NASA’s Artemis programme, we’ll be sending the first After an exhausting seven hours and 17 minutes – paused only by a phone call from US President Donald Trump congratulating the woman and next man there and hopefully it’s something I can play pair – the mission was hailed a success and the astronauts returned a role in. That would be ideal for me.”