USA (Commonwealth Union)_ Swati Varshney, the bold Indian-American skydiver boasting a career record of 1,200 jumps, stands on the brink of scripting her name in history as the first woman to embark on a jump from Earth’s stratosphere. The stratosphere, positioned as the Earth’s second major atmospheric layer, lies just above the troposphere and below the mesosphere, spanning an altitude of roughly 12 to 50 kilometers above the planet’s surface. Its distinctive characteristic is the presence of the ozone layer, which causes temperatures to rise with increasing altitude.
Under the banner of the Hera Rising project initiated by the NGO Rising United, Swati Varshney aspires to elevate a woman higher into Earth’s atmosphere than anyone has ventured before. This bold initiative aims to shatter gender barriers while also providing educational outreach programs in both Spanish and English. The selected candidate will undergo an intensive 18-month training regimen, while the others support ground-based activities. Among the three explorers endeavoring to accomplish this extraordinary feat by 2025, Swati Varshney, the Indian-American scientist, plays an integral role.
During a recent media interview, she delved into her profound passion for elevated altitudes and recounted her initial foray into skydiving. She shared her academic and career experiences and highlighted her passion for skydiving. She said, “My academic progression and my career trajectory have been really intertwined with skydiving as it went along. So I started skydiving. I just did a tandem skydive as a thing to do, to check off your bucket list, right? And I went and did it, and I had an absolute blast. I had so much fun doing it. I felt really comfortable in freefall”.
When questioned about her aspirations for this unique endeavor, she reflected, “I don’t know if I have a perfect answer for you yet. But the way I thought about this project is it’s a perfect combination of some of my key interests. My career is in science and engineering. It’s skydiving as a hobby, and then also my passion for representation and inclusion in both of those spheres, actually.” She further spoke about her significant efforts to amplify diversity and promote the presence of underrepresented minorities in the realm of outdoor sports, while also encouraging women and underrepresented minorities to pursue careers in STEM fields.
Swati concluded by saying that all three of her passions converged within a single project, where she was able to focus on her energies rather than dispersing them in three different directions, which she considered a truly remarkable opportunity. She said, “I have done a lot of work on highlighting diversity and underrepresented minorities in the outdoor sports community, as well as trying to engage women and underrepresented minorities to pursue STEM careers. To have all three of those interests in one spot and one project and to have a single thing to work on instead of my brain split in three different directions, it’s really incredible”.
