JEB author selected for NASA astronaut training.

In years to come, few of us will remember what we were doing on the 6 June 2013, but Jessica Meir will never forget the day when she answered a call and heard Janet Kavandi, Director of Flight Crew Operations at the NASA Johnson Space Center, say, 'Jessica, second time is a charm'. Not only had her life changed forever but also her lifelong dream had finally come true. Kavandi was calling to tell Meir that she had just been accepted for the prestigious astronaut-training programme at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. 'I think I was five when I first knew I wanted to be an astronaut', recalls the Assistant Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School. 'My first distinct memory, though, was in first grade, when asked to draw what we wanted to be when we grew up. I remember drawing an astronaut landing on the moon', she says. Growing up in Caribou, ME, USA, Meir made sure that she was already immersed in all things 'NASA' before she even graduated from high school. Attending the Space Camp at Purdue University, USA, in 1993 and participating in the Space and Life Sciences Training Program at the NASA Kennedy Space Center before her sophomore year at Brown University, Meir pursued her dual passions of becoming an astronaut and studying biology from an early age. And by the time she was ready to begin her Masters Degree in Space Studies at the International Space University in Strasbourg, France, Meir had already experienced microgravity, having completed her first 'vomit comet' flight shortly after graduating from Brown University. After returning from France, Meir joined the Human Research Facility at the NASA Johnson Space Center, working with a team of scientists investigating the effects of microgravity on human physiology. And it was during this time that her passion for marine biology was rekindled: 'That was when I got to do the underwater mission in Aquarius,' she explains. 'Aquarius is an underwater habitat off Key Largo, Florida, and it's down at about 50 feet', says Meir, adding, 'If you are a coral reef biologist and you want to maximise dive time, you saturation dive and you can dive for hours a day; you never have to come up'. Joining a team of two astronauts, a flight director and two habitat technicians, Meir descended for 5 days to explore the underwater environment and …