Caribou native and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir is on her way back to the International Space Station.
Meir, the commander of the SpaceX Crew-12 mission, and three other crew members launched at 5:15 a.m. Friday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and the spacecraft is expected to dock on the space station around 3:15 p.m. Saturday.
Also on the Dragon spacecraft are NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. The crew will conduct scientific demonstrations to help prepare for future exploration missions to the moon and Mars, according to NASA.
“We have left the Earth, but the Earth has not left us,” Meir said after reaching orbit Friday morning.
Meir talked about the interconnectedness of Earth — the vast oceans, the continuous landmasses — that are immediately clear from space and the need to protect it all.
“For all of those supporting and watching our journey, please know that your spirit travels with us, stitched into the very fabric of all that we do,” she said.
Meir, the first Maine woman to travel to space, has been an astronaut since 2013.
She has said in interviews with the Press Herald that her dream of going to space began as a young child in Aroostook County. She said she first started talking about becoming an astronaut at age 5 and wrote in her senior yearbook that her goal was to go for a spacewalk.
Meir’s first mission to the space station in 2019 lasted 205 days and 3,280 Earth orbits.
During her time on the space station, Meir traveled 86.9 million miles and made history when she participated in the first all-female spacewalk with fellow NASA astronaut Christina Koch. During the spacewalk, Meir was outside of the space station for 21 hours and 44 minutes.
On that six-month mission, Meir was joined for a short time by another Mainer, Chris Cassidy, who grew up in York.
Since that mission, Meir has served in various roles at NASA, including assistant to the chief astronaut for commercial crew, deputy for the Flight Integration Division and assistant to the chief astronaut for the human landing system.
NASA will begin live coverage at 1:15 p.m. Saturday as the spacecraft approaches and docks at the space station. The hatch will open around 5 p.m. and will be followed by a welcome ceremony aboard the state space station. The coverage will be streamed on the agency’s YouTube channel, NASA+ and Amazon Prime.
