Jewish astronaut gives shout-out from space as Tel Aviv comes to view

Jessica Meir is the fourth woman of Jewish heritage and the 15th overall to be part of a space mission.

By Aaron Sull, World Israel News

Jewish NASA astronaut Jessica Meir tweeted an inspiring message as she looked down at Tel Aviv from the International Space Station (ISS) shortly after midnight (UTC+02:00).

“Gazing down at the city in which my father was raised, I take to heart one of his most uttered expressions, ‘This too shall pass.’ Wise words to remember, in both good times and bad. Goodnight,” Meir tweeted.

This is the second time Meir tweeted from the space station after Israel came to view.

In November, she tweeted, “My father’s globe spanning journey as a surgeon from the Middle East, to Europe, and eventually to the U.S. was an inspiration to many in my immediate and extended family.”

In both instances, Meir attached stunning photos of the Holy Land as seen from space.

On Sep. 25, Meir lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the ISS together with Russian astronaut Oleg Skripochka and Hazzaa Ali Almansoori, the first Arab to ever set foot on the International Space Station.

Meir is the fourth woman of Jewish heritage and the 15th overall to be part of a space mission.

Meir’s Jewish roots come from her late father, who was an Iraqi-Israeli Jew. He immigrated with his family to pre-state Israel as a child and fought in the War of Independence. He became a doctor and moved to Sweden, where he met Meir’s mother. The family eventually moved to Maine because of her father’s work.

Onboard the ISS, Meir is conducting medical, physiological and chemical experiments to learn more about how staying in space affects human beings.

On a clear day, the ISS is visible to the naked eye from the ground.