UC San Diego graduate Jessica Meir en route to the International Space Station

NASA astronaut Jessica Meir is en route to the International Space Station, where the UC San Diego graduate will spend eight months studying how microgravity affects the human body, research critical for the exploration of the moon and Mars.

Meir and three other astronauts lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and are expected to reach the space station early Saturday. She is the commander of the mission.

The 48-year-old Meir is making her second trip into space. She spent 205 days on the space station in 2019-2020 and was part of three all-woman spacewalks.

Meir graduated from UC San Diego in 2009, earning a doctorate in marine biology at the school’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.