From the Liveblog of
Sunday, February 8, 2026
Jewish astronaut Jessica Meir headed to International Space Station, with stuffed animal in tow
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When the next mission to the International Space Station blasts off from Florida next week, a special keepsake will be hitching a ride: a small stuffed rabbit.
American Jewish astronaut and mother, Jessica Meir, one of the four-member crew, reveals that she’ll take with her the cuddly toy that belongs to her three-year-old daughter.
It’s customary for astronauts going to the ISS, which orbits 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth, to take small personal items to keep close during their months-long stint in space.
“I do have a small stuffed rabbit that belongs to my three-year-old daughter, and she actually has two of these because one was given as a gift,” Meir, 48, tells an online news conference.
“So one will stay down here with her, and one will be there with us, having adventures all the time, so that we’ll keep sending those photos back and forth to my family,” she says.
US space agency NASA says SpaceX Crew-12 will lift off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida to the orbiting scientific laboratory early Wednesday.
Meir, a marine biologist and physiologist and daughter of an Iraqi-Israeli father and Swedish mother, served as a flight engineer on a 2019-2020 expedition to the space station and participated in the first all-female spacewalks.
Since then, she’s given birth to her daughter. She reflects on the challenges of being a parent and what is due to be an eight-month separation from her child.
“It does make it a lot difficult in preparing to leave and thinking about being away from her for that long, especially when she’s so young; it’s really a large chunk of her life,” Meir says.
“But I hope that one day, she will really realize that this absence was a meaningful one, because it was an adventure that she got to share in and that she’ll have memories about, and hopefully it will inspire her and other people around the world,” Meir adds.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.