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by Shiryn Ghermezian
Ground personnel carry International Space Station (ISS) crew member Jessica Meir of NASA after the landing of the Soyuz MS-15 space capsule in a remote area outside Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, April 17, 2020. Photo: Andrey Shelepin / GCTC / Russian space agency Roscosmos / Handout via Reuters.
Jewish NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and her colleagues came home to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, the first returning space mission since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic in March.
Meir along with fellow NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka landed in central Kazakhstan.
Aboard the ISS before her departure, Meir said it would be difficult to hold back embraces with family and friends as she tried to adhere to social-distancing restrictions on Earth.
She explained, “I think I will feel more isolated on Earth than here.”
Russia’s Roscosmos space agency said the crew meeting the trio at the landing site were tested for COVID-19 and would wear full-body protective wear.
The team also skipped the usual staging post at Karaganda airport, which is shut down due to the coronavirus, for their separate journeys back to Russia and the United States. Skripochka flew from the Baikonur cosmodrome, a spaceport in southern Kazakhstan, while Meir and Morgan traveled to the US by plane from the city of Kyzlorda.
Meir spent a total of 205 days in space and tweeted twice about her father’s Middle Eastern heritage while aboard the ISS.
She is the fourth Jewish woman and 15th Jewish astronaut overall to fly in space.
Meir joined the crew of the ISS in September and in October became part of the first-ever female spacewalking team.
