Bay Area Astronaut Heading Home After 115 Days Aboard International Space Station

Kate Rubins is an inspiration to her high school — Vintage High in Napa — and to kids everywhere.

Follow your dream, study a lot of science, and maybe you can end up on the International Space Station.

After 115 days, two space walks, and roughly 48.6 million miles, Rubins is finally coming home.

After a docking ceremony Friday, she and two other astronauts will head to Kazakhstan. From there, it’s back home for Rubins to, among other things, vote.

“I got my absentee ballot sent to low earth orbit,” she said. “It’s incredible what we can make happen up here.”

Rubins spoke to her high school from ISS in September. NASA officials call her a great role model, “both to young girls, and young boys,” said NASA’s Brandi Dean. “We want everyone to be interested in space.”

Thanks in part to Rubins, many of us are.