Through use of videoconferencing technology, sixth grade students in Carrie Neu’s class from Shore Road learned firsthand about life at the International Space Station. During a Mystery Doug Livestream, the students connected with NASA astronaut Dr. Jessica Meir and watched a number of videos she filmed while docked in space earlier this year.

Dr. Meir was selected by NASA in 2013 as one of eight members of the 21st NASA astronaut class and was the flight engineer for Expedition 61 and 62 (Sept. 25, 2019-April 17, 2020) on the Soyuz spacecraft, which docked at the International Space Station. Dr. Meir was the first to conduct an all-woman spacewalk, contributed to biology experiments in space and examined how heart tissue functions in space.

The students also learned that Dr. Meir spent 205 days in space, made 3,280 orbits of Earth and traveled 86.9 million miles. The students asked how the astronauts washed their hands and drank water in zero-gravity air and learned that the crew played “baseball” and flipped upside down for recreational activity.