PORTLAND, Maine — Maine's own Jessica Meir is getting a lot attention this week as she could be one of the first women to land on the moon.
Meir, a Caribou native, is among 18 astronauts–nine men and nine women–tapped to be on NASA's Artemis Team, which is tasked with the next lunar mission for 2024.
NEWS CENTER Maine's Zach Blanchard got the chance to chat with Meir one-on-one Friday. She says this is just another dream come true.
Watch the full interview here:
Q: It has been just over a year since you made history taking part in the first all-female space walk. Now, you could be making history again as one of the first women on the moon. What does that feel like?
A: It's an incredibly exciting time to be and astronaut, and I can say having just completed my first mission, it's a real game changer when that dream finally comes true and you're actually in space looking down at the earth. Now to be looking forward to these future missions, toward our explorations back on the moon and eventually mars, I mean it's even more of a dream come true than the vision I had as a child.
Q:You're obviously from Caribou. You had became an astronaut in a somewhat untraditional way as a biologist. But you found success like this. Do you ever look back and say, 'Wow. I'm actually here'?
A: All the time! Yeah, it's funny when we're on the other side of this, on the camera, or giving a talk to people, or up there floating on the international space station, sometimes it's even surreal for us.
Q: Why is this mission so special maybe compared to the last one?
A: Going to moon is really the next step in our human space exploration. We’ve had this continuous human presence on the space station now for 20 years. We have a lot of experience, decades of data teaching us so much about what it takes to work and live successfully for long durations of space. It just makes sense that now this next step is to go further than low-earth orbit, to go to the moon and do eventually go on to Mars. That's the way we do things at NASA. We do things in an incremental fashion always making sure that we take those lessons learned to propel us as a jumping point off into the future. That’s exactly what we’re doing.
Q: There's of course that iconic saying 'One small step for man. One giant leap for man kind.' When you bring up the fact you are a woman and could perhaps be making history here, you often point to the women that came before you. Right?
A: Absolutely. I think that’s an important thing to remember. There’s a lot of attention drawn to that moment, the first thing, the first female space walk for me on my mission. You know, we look at it as not a personal achievement for us, because it is really is those generations of women and other minorities that came before us, for decades before us, those were the ones that really had to do the hard work. We definitely did not have a place at the table, and of course we still have room to grow now, but I hope these kinds of achievements are extremely celebrated by them, because they are the reason why I might get go to the moon.
Q: What is your message to Maine kids watching right now especially that little girl in first grade in Caribou?
A: I think my first message is saying thank you to everybody that supported me all throughout my childhood. You know it's a pretty isolated remote place, but I think I'm proof now that you can do anything that you dream. That sounds kind of trite, but it really is true. I know that sometimes it helps if you can identify with someone in someway. They look like you. Did they grow up where you did? Did they have some of the same experiences? That helps you realize that you truly can achieve anything.