California, USA (CU)_ Blue Origin’s suborbital space rocket New Shephard, which flew Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos and three other people to space on July 20 was created by a team of engineers that included the 30-year-old Indian woman from Maharashtra. Sanjal Gavande is one of the systems engineers at the spaceflight services company. She was born in Kalyan and had an ambition of designing a spaceship since childhood.
Ms Gavande spoke to the media from the USA. She said, “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 parents are Ashok Gavande, who is a retired employee of the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation, and Surekha Gavande, who is a retired employee of MTNL. They told the media that their daughter had always been passionate about space.
Sanjal Gavande graduated from the University of Mumbai with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and then moved to the United States to continue her master’s degree in mechanical engineering at Michigan Technological University. After completing her master’s degree at Wisconsin, she served at Mercury Marine. Later, she worked for Toyota Racing Development in Orange City, California.
According to her mother, Ms Gavande applied for a position at NASA after receiving her pilot’s license in 2016, but was turned down owing to citizenship difficulties. But due to her untiring efforts, she then applied for Blue Origin, where she was hired as a systems engineer. Ms Gavande’s mother expressed pride over her daughter’s achievement. She said, “People told us that she is a girl, so why has she opted for mechanical engineering? I also thought sometimes about whether she would be able to handle such hard work. She has now made us all proud. She had a dream of designing aerospace rockets and she has achieved it”.
