Year born: 1983
Research Areas: Flight testing and Spaceflight
"At the end of the day, you have to believe that you’re doing what you love doing and that will be enough to get you through. You’re going to fail at some point but just keep going."
Source: Downes, Bridget. “NASA Welcomes Baldwinite to Its Crew.” Herald Community Newspapers, 16 Jan. 2020
Early Life
Jasmin Moghbeli was born in 1983 in Bad Nauheim, West Germany. Her parents were born and raised in Iran. Moghbeli went to high school in New York. After this, she earned her bachelor's in aerospace engineering at MIT.
She then went on to do her master's degree in aerospace engineering at the Naval Postgraduate School in California. Following this, Moghbeli graduated from the US Naval Test Pilot School in Maryland. Moghbeli speaks Persian and English and learned Russian as part of her astronaut training.
Career Highlights
Jasmin Moghbeli joined the US Marine Corps in 2005 after she had finished college. She trained as a pilot and became a Naval Aviator in 2008. She flew the 'AH-1W Super Cobra' helicopter. Moghbeli served in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010. She later was part of multiple military missions.
After this, she trained as a test pilot. As a test pilot, she worked on testing new technologies for helicopters. By 2017, she had flown over 150 combat missions, and she has spent more than 2000 hours flying 25 different aircraft.
Jasmin Moghbeli became an astronaut in 2017. She trained for 2 years to become an astronaut. She helped to develop NASA's Human Landing System before she went to space. On the 26th of August 2023, she went to space with NASA's SpaceX Crew-7. She was the commander of this mission. She spent 197 days on the International Space Station!
While in space, she travelled over 84 million miles and orbited Earth 3,184 times. As part of her time there, she helped with science experiments and technology tests. She also did a spacewalk to fix a solar panel. On the 12th of March 2024, she and her crew returned to Earth after spending 6 months in space.
Legacy
Jasmin Moghbeli has received many awards for her service. These include medals for her work in the military and space. She earned honours from the Navy, Marine Corps, and NASA.
As well as this, she has been given the Ellis Island Medal of Honour. Moghbeli has inspired many people, especially women and those from diverse backgrounds, to go into STEM.
Other Interests
Moghbeli has many interests that are outside of her space career. Some of these hobbies include paddle boarding, dancing and skate boarding.