Sanjal Gavande, a 30-year-old woman from Kalyan in Maharashtra, is part of the Blue Origin team that built the suborbital space rocket New Shephard, which will launch billionaire Jeff Bezos and three others into space later this month.
Sanjal Gavande is a mechanical engineering graduate from the University of Mumbai who works as a systems engineer for a commercial spaceflight company. In 2011, she moved to Michigan Technological University to pursue her master’s degree in mechanical engineering. “I am really happy that my childhood dream is about to come true. I am proud to be a part of Team Blue Origin,” said Gavande
Sanjal Gavande, the daughter of a municipal corporation employee and a retired MTNL official, opted for aerospace as a subject in her master’s 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,” her father Ashok Gavande, who lives in lives in Kalyan’s Kolsewadi area.
After completing her master’s degree at Wisconsin, Sanjal Gavande worked for Mercury Marine, Brunswick Corporation’s marine engine division. She joined Toyota Racing Development as a mechanical design engineer after three years at Mercury Marine, first as a design analysis intern and then as a design analysis engineer.
Sanjal Gavande, a commercial pilot, applied for a job as a space engineer at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), but was turned down due to citizenship issues.
