Maine astronaut Jessica Meir has been inducted into another hall of fame.
The Caribou native was inducted Saturday into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air and Space Museum.
It’s not the first time Meir has been inducted into a hall of fame. She was inducted into the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame last year and was named as one of 2020’s most influential people by Time magazine.
The museum lauded Meir as a distinguished astronaut, biologist and member of the Artemis program.
The Artemis II team will test the capabilities for deep space flight. During the 10-day mission, the team will fly to and orbit the moon aboard the Orion spacecraft. Artemis II will pave the way for the first human being to set foot on the moon since 1972 during the Apollo 17 mission, according to NASA.
Though Meir wasn’t selected for the Artemis II mission, she has already cemented her place in Maine history on Sept. 28, 2019, when she became the first Maine woman to go into space. During her six-month mission aboard the International Space Station, Meir and her fellow astronaut Christina Koch made history for performing the first all-female spacewalk, a feat they repeated a second and third time.
“This milestone exemplified her commitment to breaking barriers in both gender and science,” the museum said in a statement.
Meir, the valedictorian of Caribou High School’s Class of 1995, was among three women and four men selected from 6,100 applicants in 2013 for NASA’s 21st class of astronauts and to begin training for future space flights. That came only four years after Meir first applied but was rejected for NASA’s 20th class of astronauts. NASA announced in April 2019 that Meir would make her first space flight in September.
In many ways, Meir’s selection to join the space program began very early in her life. Meir participated in the space camp at Purdue University in Indiana before starting her freshman year at Caribou High School, and she also took part in a six-week summer camp at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida between her sophomore and junior years at Brown University in Rhode Island.
Meir has a degree in biology from Brown University, a master’s in space studies from the International Space University in Illkirch, France, and a Ph.D. in marine biology from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, according to NASA.
Meir is one of Caribou High School’s most distinguished graduates, along with Gregory H. Johnson, a four star Navy admiral; Olof Pierson, who is credited with inventing frozen french fries; and Susan Collins, a U.S. senator. In 2016, Meir was inducted into the high school’s Alumni Hall of Fame.
“A skilled communicator, Meir is renowned for engaging the public about the importance of STEM and the future of human spaceflight, inspiring a new generation of explorers. She continues to train and prepare for the forthcoming Artemis missions, setting her sights on both lunar and Martian frontiers,” the San Diego Air and Space Museum said.
Meir is among at least three Maine natives to become astronauts, the others being Christopher Cassidy, a York High School graduate who completed three spaceflights and 10 spacewalks and served as the nation’s chief astronaut from 2013 to 2017, and Charles O. Hobaugh, a Bar Harbor native who has made three spaceflights. Bridget Ziegelaar, a graduate of Old Town High School, is an operations manager for International Space Station Research Integration at NASA.
Meir announced the birth of her first child on International Women’s Day in March.
