Astronaut answers B.C. students’ questions while in space

UBC alumna and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir is shown in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - UBC (Mandatory Credit)

UBC alumna Jessica Meir gave students an unusual office tour on Thursday as she floated and flipped inside her zero-gravity workplace — the orbiting International Space Station.

Meir is a NASA astronaut and the commander of a SpaceX Crew-12 mission to the station, where she’s living for eight months. 

U.S.-based Meir, who taught a flock of geese how to fly at UBC as part of her zoology research there from 2009 to 2012, answered questions from high school and university students on subjects ranging from space suit design research to how she keeps her curly hair clean in space.

“Of course, gravity isn’t pulling down at my curls. And it all kind of stands up here in this sort of curly Afro look, which I’m totally into,” Meir said as her distinctive hair floated above her. 

She spoke for about 20 minutes on the Zoom call that was screened at the alumni association building at the Vancouver campus, with a UBC flag in the background and her UBC zoology T-shirt proudly on display. 

Meir spoke about how hard it is to adjust to basic tasks like drinking water or using the washroom in a zero-gravity environment, and said it was initially hard for her brain to adjust to tasks that seemed easy on Earth. 

“You have to keep track of everything. You take your hand off something, it floats away in the ventilation and it’s suddenly gone, disappears instantly, and then out of nowhere it will sometimes just come back and be floating right in front of your face again,” Meir said. “So, all of that stuff brings a lot of unexpected outcomes to the day."

In between questions, Meir did somersaults for the audience which also included daycare students, one dressed in a NASA-branded spacesuit costume.

Bill Milsom, a professor emeritus of zoology at UBC who was once Meir’s PhD supervisor, said she was a highly motivated student who was a “joy to work with.” 

Meir’s post-doctoral research saw her raise 12 geese from eggs, and she taught them how to fly by leading them around campus on her scooter. She also studied birds as they flew in wind-tunnels to learn more about a species that flies in high-altitude environments. 

Milsom said it’s “fantastic” to see his former student reach great heights — literally, as she now works hundreds of kilometres above the Earth. 

He added that Meir’s first application to NASA resulted in a rejection.

“It took Jessica two goes to get into the program. But if you persevere and keep at it, things quite often work out,” he said. 

Meir told students that while space has its challenges, like physically and mentally demanding spacewalks, it’s not the hardest part of life in orbit. 

“On my first missions six years ago, I wasn’t married and I didn’t have any kids, and now I have a husband and a three-year-old daughter,” she said.

“So for me the hardest part about being up here is being away from them.”

This report by Marissa Birnie, The Canadian Press, was first published March 26, 2026.