UC San Diego Alum, NASA Astronaut Jessica Meir Launches Into Space for 1st Time
By Christina Bravo ••
Scripps Oceanographer alumna and current astronaut Jessica Meir set her sights on the International Space Station. NBC 7’s Liberty Zabala has more.
It's a dream that has been a lifetime in the making for this UC San Diego alumni; on Wednesday, now NASA astronaut Jessica Meir embarked on her first launch into space to start a six-month mission at the International Space Station.
When Meir was five years old, she was asked to draw what she wanted to be when she grew up. The drawing, she recalls, was a photo of an astronaut on the moon with an American Flag behind her.
Nine minutes after the launch from Kazakhstan on Wednesday, it was the closest Meir has come yet to bringing that image to life -- she had entered space for the first time.
Meir and two others, Russia's Oleg Skripochka and the United Arab Emirates' Hazzaa Ali Almansoori, will spend six hours in the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft before arriving at the ISS.
As the rocket launched, Meir's friends, family and colleagues cheered her on from UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, where she studied diving physiology.
A beaming PhD advisor, Paul Ponganis, described how proud he was to see his student fulfill her dream.
Sergei Savostyanov/TASS
KAZAKHSTAN SEPTEMBER 25, 2019: ISS Expedition 61/62 main crew member, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir waves before a launch to the International Space Station from the Gagarin's Start pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch of Expedition 61/62 aboard the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft to the ISS is scheduled for 25 September 2019 at 16:57 Moscow time. It will be the last launch of a Soyuz-FG rocket booster that is to be replaced with Soyuz-2.1a rockets. Sergei Savostyanov/TASS (Photo by Sergei SavostyanovTASS via Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images
Members of the main crew to the International Space Station (ISS) (from L) United Arab Emirates' astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka and US astronaut Jessica Meir report to Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin (R) arrive to board a Soyuz rocket to the ISS, at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on September 25, 2019. (Photo by Vyacheslav OSELEDKO / AFP) (Photo credit should read VYACHESLAV OSELEDKO/AFP/Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images
International Space Station (ISS) crew member, NASA's US astronaut Jessica Meir waves as she boards the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft before its blasts off for the ISS, on September 25, 2019 at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. (Photo by Maxim SHIPENKOV / POOL / AFP) (Photo credit should read MAXIM SHIPENKOV/AFP/Getty Images)
Sergei Savostyanov/TASS
KAZAKHSTAN SEPTEMBER 25, 2019: ISS Expedition 61/62 main crew members, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka, the United Arab Emirates' first astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri, and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir (L-R) before a launch to the International Space Station from the Gagarin's Start pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch of Expedition 61/62 aboard the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft to the ISS is scheduled for 25 September 2019 at 16:57 Moscow time. It will be the last launch of a Soyuz-FG rocket booster that is to be replaced with Soyuz-2.1a rockets. Sergei Savostyanov/TASS (Photo by Sergei SavostyanovTASS via Getty Images)
Sergei Savostyanov/TASS
KAZAKHSTAN SEPTEMBER 25, 2019: ISS Expedition 61/62 main crew member, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir during a spacesuit check before a launch to the International Space Station from the Gagarin's Start pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch of Expedition 61/62 aboard the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft to the ISS is scheduled for 25 September 2019 at 16:57 Moscow time. It will be the last launch of a Soyuz-FG rocket booster that is to be replaced with Soyuz-2.1a rockets. Sergei Savostyanov/TASS (Photo by Sergei SavostyanovTASS via Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images
Member of the main crew to the International Space Station (ISS) US astronaut Jessica Meir salutes people from a bus before boarding a Soyuz rocket to the ISS, at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on September 25, 2019. (Photo by Vyacheslav OSELEDKO / AFP) (Photo credit should read VYACHESLAV OSELEDKO/AFP/Getty Images)
Sergei Savostyanov/TASS
KAZAKHSTAN SEPTEMBER 25, 2019: ISS Expedition 61/62 main crew member, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir during a spacesuit check before a launch to the International Space Station from the Gagarin's Start pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch of Expedition 61/62 aboard the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft to the ISS is scheduled for 25 September 2019 at 16:57 Moscow time. It will be the last launch of a Soyuz-FG rocket booster that is to be replaced with Soyuz-2.1a rockets. Sergei Savostyanov/TASS (Photo by Sergei SavostyanovTASS via Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images
Member of the main crew to the International Space Station (ISS) US astronaut Jessica Meir has her spacesuit tested before boarding a Soyuz rocket to the ISS, at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on September 25, 2019. (Photo by Vyacheslav OSELEDKO / AFP) (Photo credit should read VYACHESLAV OSELEDKO/AFP/Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images
Member of the main crew to the International Space Station (ISS) US astronaut Jessica Meir has her spacesuit tested before boarding a Soyuz rocket to the ISS, at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on September 25, 2019. (Photo by Vyacheslav OSELEDKO / AFP) (Photo credit should read VYACHESLAV OSELEDKO/AFP/Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images
Member of the main crew to the International Space Station (ISS) US astronaut Jessica Meir has her spacesuit tested before boarding a Soyuz rocket to the ISS, at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on September 25, 2019. (Photo by Vyacheslav OSELEDKO / AFP) (Photo credit should read VYACHESLAV OSELEDKO/AFP/Getty Images)
Sergei Savostyanov/TASS
KAZAKHSTAN SEPTEMBER 25, 2019: ISS Expedition 61/62 main crew member, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir during a spacesuit check before a launch to the International Space Station from the Gagarin's Start pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch of Expedition 61/62 aboard the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft to the ISS is scheduled for 25 September 2019 at 16:57 Moscow time. It will be the last launch of a Soyuz-FG rocket booster that is to be replaced with Soyuz-2.1a rockets. Sergei Savostyanov/TASS (Photo by Sergei SavostyanovTASS via Getty Images)
Sergei Savostyanov/TASS
BAIKONUR, KAZAKHSTAN SEPTEMBER 25, 2019: ISS Expedition 61/62 main crew members, the United Arab Emirates' first astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka, and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir (L-R) before a launch to the International Space Station from the Gagarin's Start pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch of Expedition 61/62 aboard the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft to the ISS is scheduled for 25 September 2019 at 16:57 Moscow time. It will be the last launch of a Soyuz-FG rocket booster that is to be replaced with Soyuz-2.1a rockets. Sergei Savostyanov/TASS (Photo by Sergei SavostyanovTASS via Getty Images)
Sergei Savostyanov/TASS
BAIKONUR, KAZAKHSTAN SEPTEMBER 25, 2019: ISS Expedition 61/62 main crew members, the United Arab Emirates' first astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka, and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir (L-R) before a launch to the International Space Station from the Gagarin's Start pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch of Expedition 61/62 aboard the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft to the ISS is scheduled for 25 September 2019 at 16:57 Moscow time. It will be the last launch of a Soyuz-FG rocket booster that is to be replaced with Soyuz-2.1a rockets. Sergei Savostyanov/TASS (Photo by Sergei SavostyanovTASS via Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images
Crew member of the International Space Station (ISS) US astronaut Jessica Meir waves from inside a bus during a farewell ceremony outside the Cosmonauts' hotel on his way to the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on September 25, 2019. - Al Mansouri will make history by becoming the first Arab on the International Space Station said he had received support from around the world before his "dream" mission. (Photo by Vyacheslav OSELEDKO / AFP) (Photo credit should read VYACHESLAV OSELEDKO/AFP/Getty Images)
Sergei Savostyanov/TASS
KAZAKHSTAN SEPTEMBER 25, 2019: A Soyuz-FG rocket booster blasts off from Gagarin's Start at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, carrying the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft with ISS Expedition 61/62 prime crewmembers onboard, the United Arab Emirates' first astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka, and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir. It will be the last launch of a Soyuz-FG rocket booster that is to be replaced with Soyuz-2.1a rockets. Sergei Savostyanov/TASS (Photo by Sergei SavostyanovTASS via Getty Images)
"From the very start when she interviewed with me, we knew that she possibly would become an astronaut; that was one of the primary goals of her life," Ponganis said.
"For me, all my students are sort of academic children and she is essentially my academic daughter. And, to me, I'm proud as ever that she is able to do this," he added.
By 7:06 a.m., just minutes after launch, the rocket was traveling 13,500 miles per hour towards it's destination, the Zvezda service module, which will connect them via a hatch to the ISS where they will join six other astronauts.
Quite an unreal feeling to gaze up at the actual @roscosmos#Soyuz engines that will ferry us to space. Photo1: 1st stage engines, 2: 3rd stage (once these engines cut off we’ll be in space headed to @Space_Station) T-4 days to launch! pic.twitter.com/F0Baij9vkt
The team will be conducting experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science inside a microgravity laboratory. There, Meir will use her biology lessons from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Before receiving her doctorate in marine biology at UCSD, Meir studied biology at Duke University and studied at the International Space University in France. She worked for three years at NASA's Johnson Space Center to research how humans' physiology changes in space.
MOMENT OF PRIDE: Friends, school staff & loved ones of a San Diego @NASA astronaut are about to watch Jessica Meir lift off in just few minutes to the #InternationalSpaceStation. They tells us about her time as a graduate student at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. #NBC7pic.twitter.com/nK1pX11SaD
