Sanjal Gavande: Engineer behind Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin Space Flight

Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin Space Flight has been in the headlines for quite some time. People across the globe are excited and interested to know more about the Blue Origin space flight. Well, for Indians it might be a matter of great pride that Maharashtra born Sanjal Gavande is one of the 30 scientists working behind the Blue Origin Space Flight. Read on to know more about Sanjal Gavande, the engineer behind Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin space flight.

Who is Sanjal Gavande?

Born in Maharashtra, Sanjal Gavande is the daughter of a municipal corporation employee and her mother was an MTNL officer. She completed her graduation from the University of Mumbai where she acquired a Bachelor Degree in Mechanical Engineering. She then went to the USA in 2011 to pursue a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University and cleared it with a first-class.

“She always wanted to build a spaceship and that is the reason she chose aerospace as a subject while pursuing her Master’s degree at Michigan Technological University. She worked with Mercury Marine after finishing her Masters at Wisconsin. Then she went to work with Toyota racing development at Orange City in California,” Sanjal’s father Ashok Gavande told India Today.

Life in the USA

After completing her master’s, Sanjal Gavande worked at Mercury Marine in Wisconsin and Toyota Racing Development at Orange City in California. Her dreams were always centred around space so on the weekends, she took flying lessons to chase her space dreams. And it was in 2016 finally that her efforts paid off and she earned a commercial pilot’s license.

The Journey to Blue Space

Post working with Mercury Marine and Toyota Racing Development she wanted to chase her space dreams. Sanjal Gavande applied for a job at NASA but couldn’t get through because of citizenship issues. However, she then applied at Blue Origin where she successfully secured a job as a system’s engineer. And now she is a part of the team that is working for Blue Origin on the rocket system ‘New Shepherd’.

Jeff Bezos’s Mission

Bezos, the former CEO of Amazon is set to make history next with the world’s first unpiloted suborbital flight. He will be joined by his brother and private equity executive Mark Bezos and Wally Funk. New Shepard is a 60-foot-tall (18.3-meters-tall) rocket. It is fully autonomous and cannot be piloted from inside the spacecraft. The crew will include only civilians. None of the Blue Origin employees or staff astronauts will be a part of the flight.

“I am really happy that my childhood dream is about to come true. I am proud to be a part of Team Blue Origin.”

Sanjal Gavande’s interview is indeed inspiring for all the women out there. When Sanjal decided to pursue mechanical engineering, she faced backlash from society.  People around her expressed apprehensions about a girl opting for such a technical subject. However, she made it into the space industry breaking all the stereotypes and setting an example for young women to be inspired by. At the same time, Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft can be called another milestone in the nascent and potentially lucrative space tourism sector.

So, this was all about Sanjal Gavande, the 30-year-old woman behind Jeff Bezos’s space flight. For more informative and inspiring content, stay connected with Leverage Edu!