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Jessica Meir has always been interested in how Earth creatures respond to extreme environments, so it makes sense that she is heading to outer space, the most extreme environment of all.

The one-time UBC post-doctoral researcher will blast off Sept. 25 aboard a Russian Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft for a six-month stay on the International Space Station and to fulfil a childhood dream.

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“I’ve wanted to be an astronaut since I was five, so it won’t surprise anyone that I’m going to space,” said Meir, who is at the Star City cosmonaut training facility outside Moscow. “I just never thought it would come true.”

Aboard the ISS, Meir will be conducting a variety of experiments in human physiology using herself as the main research subject. She has long experience studying the physiology of animals at extreme depths and high altitudes.

At the University of B.C., Meir and her colleague Julia York played mother to baby bar-headed geese so they could teach them to fly in a wind tunnel.