Cardiologist Eiman Jahangir has applied to be a NASA astronaut five times and made it to the final interviews. In a way, his flight with Blue Origin is a consolation prize and he is thrilled.
NASA crew of Boeing Starliner to remain in space until February
Boeing Starliner astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams are expected to remain in space until February, NASA announced Saturday.
Sure, the trip will only take 11 minutes, and yes, the rocket capsule will barely cross the 68-mile-high barrier to space.
The space tourism flight is suborbital and, in some ways, suboptimal for a Vanderbilt University cardiologist who has spent his life dreaming of – and recently training for – walking on the moon. Or at least orbiting the Earth in the International Space Station.
But when Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin flight lifts off from West Texas at 8 a.m. Thursday – weather and conditions permitting, of course – Dr. Eiman Jahangir of Nashville will be thrilled to be on board.
First Iranian-American in space. First person from Nashville in space (although Mt. Juliet High School graduate Barry “Butch” Wilmore and fellow NASA alum Sunita Williams are currently stuck on the International Space Station until next year after their Boeing Starliner spacecraft encountered problems on the flight there in June).
“I see the Blue Origin flight as an opportunity to do something great,” Jahangir told The Tennessean last week.
“There are still only about 700 people in space,” he said. “And it will give me a realistic understanding of what that feels like.”
Jahangir, 44, said his space dreams are rooted in danger: He spent his early years in war-torn Iran, watching for missiles while his family scurried to safety in a basement after air raid sirens went off in the capital, Tehran.
“First realization that things could fly”
But the little boy was not afraid.
He was fascinated.
“That was the first time I realized that things could fly in the sky,” he said.
His family – including his brother Alex, now also a doctor at Vanderbilt University and serving as Nashville’s COVID commissioner during the pandemic – moved to Nashville when Jahangir was four years old.
His first trip to the US Space & Rocket Center in nearby Huntsville, Alabama, came just two years later. Little Eiman Jahangir stood there under the giant rocket, staring in awe and thinking over and over: Wow, this thing is going to the moon?
“I always thought about putting my feet on the moon,” he said. “I wanted to touch that surface.”
Those dreams grew when Jahangir began visiting, volunteering, and eventually working at Nashville’s Adventure Science Center, which regularly hosted exhibits on space travel. However, Jahangir’s more practical side as a science lover and the encouragement of his parents led him to pursue a career in medicine.
His grandfather’s stroke led him to turn to cardiology. “I saw how it was destroying his life … and I wanted to be part of the solution,” he said.
Nevertheless, space was Jahangir’s first passion, and it was rekindled when he visited the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after completing his medical studies.
“I want to feel that power that allows you to escape gravity,” he said.
He researched on the Internet: What qualifications are needed to become an astronaut? It turns out that being a doctor can get you pretty far.
He began applying in 2008, telling friends and family he just wanted to get it off his chest. Strangely, NASA decided to accept a second application. And then came a week-long round of interviews and tests at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where Jahangir met real astronauts.
And then an interview with the finalists.
And then…. Well….
“It was fuel for the fire”
In 2009, he received a call telling him that he had not made it but that he should apply again.
“I was so close,” he said, adding wistfully, “It stoked the fire. You can almost touch the sky.”
In 2012 he applied again. Again he made it to the final round. Again he was rejected.
In the next three applications, Jahangir did not even make it to the second application. But Jahangir did not give up hope.
He began submitting research proposals to the mushrooming private space companies. He joined an online space community called MOONDao, which crowdfunded two seats on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space tourism flights.
And on this second flight – the one that starts this week – Jahangir won. Almost without a fight.
He was the fourth person selected for this week’s flight. And then, one by one, the three people ahead of him dropped out for various reasons.
One Monday afternoon, he received a text message from the MOONDao people inviting him to a phone call the next day. The call went something like this: “You’re going to space!”
Jahangir was jumping up and down in his clinic at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Then he called his wife, and they jumped up and down together. Then he went to his brother, who worked one floor below, and they jumped up and down together.
“I am thrilled!” said Jahangir. “I couldn’t believe it!”
He will travel in a reusable New Shepard rocket capsule. The launch, scheduled for 8 a.m. Thursday, will be streamed live on Blue Origin’s website starting at 7:20 a.m. Jahangir will be one of six people on board. The others include a university professor, three wealthy entrepreneurs and a college student, 21-year-old Karsen Kitchen, a senior at the University of North Carolina.
Jahangir will carry wearable devices to collect medical data so Vanderbilt researchers can study how space affects the immune system, genetic expression and genetic mutations in blood stem cells.
But most of all, he will focus on enjoying the moment and staring out the capsule’s oversized windows.
“We are at the beginning of a new space age,” he said. “I’m not afraid. I couldn’t be more excited.”
Reach Brad Schmitt at [email protected] or 615-259-8384.
