It's time for Swedish-American Jessica Meir to travel to the international space station ISS. When the Sojuz vessel leaves the Kosmodrome in Bajkonur, she is enrolled in the history books the second Swede to date, after Christer Fuglesang.

Along with the spacecraft colleagues aboard, one from Russia and one from the United Arab Emirates, Jessica Meir is shot from the base on the Kazakh steppe by the power of a Sojuz-FG rocket nearly 60 meters high.

Swedish-American Jessica Meir, Russian Oleg Skripochka and Hazzaa Ali Almansoori from the United Arab Emirates on their way to the Soyuz vessel. Photo: Shamil Zhumatov, TT / Reuters

After about six hours of space travel, the trio will dock with their new home, the space station ISS. There, in orbit around the Earth, they will then live and work for a full six months, among other things, in order to be able to study what happens to the human body after staying in weightlessness for so long.

Hard competition

Jessica Meir was born and raised in the United States, but her mother is Swedish. She has both Swedish and American citizenship and has also spent a lot of time in Sweden. She is a trained biologist and has, among other things, researched animals under extreme conditions.

Jessica Meir applied to NASA's astronaut program several times before being accepted in 2013 in fierce competition. Six years later, after demanding preparations, her dream of space becomes a reality.