Astronaut and UBC alumna to answer student questions from space station
Published 10:10 am Tuesday, March 24, 2026
University of British Columbia students will be getting a line directly to outer space on Thursday when Jessica Meir, a school alumna and astronaut, will answer questions live from the International Space Station.
Meir is the spacecraft commander for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) SpaceX Crew-12 mission. She is living on the space station for an eight-month stint.
She attended the UBC zoology program from 2009 to 2012, studying bar-headed geese as a postdoctoral fellow. Her project was to raise 12 geese from eggs and teach them to fly by leading them around campus on a scooter. She then used a wind tunnel to take physiological measurements.
This is Meir’s second stint on the space station, having participated in the first all-women spacewalks from 2019 to 2020. She has also worked as an “aquanaut” as part of NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operations exploring underwater habitats.
Students submitted questions via Instagram. Those with the best questions were invited to ask the astronaut live on Thursday, March 26, at 10:20 a.m. in an on-campus event.