Jasmin Moghbeli (Persian: یاسمین مقبلی; born June 24-06-1983) is an Iranian American U.S. Marine Corps test pilot and NASA astronaut. She is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Naval Postgraduate School and Naval Test Pilot School.
Early life and education
Moghbeli was born on June 24-06-1983 , in Bad Nauheim, West Germany, to an Iranian family of Kurdish origin from Mahabad , northwest Iran. Her parents had fled Iran following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and subsequently emigrated to the United States, where they settled in Baldwin, New York. Moghbeli attended Baldwin Senior High School in New York and Advanced Space Academy at the Huntsville Space Camp in Alabama while she was a student. She earned a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering with information technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and played volleyball, lacrosse, and basketball for the MIT Engineers.
Military career
Moghbeli was commissioned as an officer in the United States Marine Corps in 2005, and trained to become an AH-1 Super Cobra pilot. While in service with the Marine Corps, she deployed overseas three times and completed 150 combat missions. Moghbeli received a master's degree in aerospace engineering from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in California and also attended the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland, becoming a helicopter test pilot with VMX-1 at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Arizona.
As of 2019, she has accumulated over 2,000 hours of flight time and flown in 150 combat missions, including sorties in Afghanistan.
NASA career
In June 2017, Moghbeli was selected as a member of NASA Astronaut Group 22, and subsequently began her two-year training.
In January 2020, she graduated alongside 13 others in the NASA Astronaut Candidate Training Program, officially making her eligible for spaceflight, including assignments to the International Space Station, Artemis missions to the Moon, and ultimately, missions to Mars.
In March 2022, she was assigned as commander of the SpaceX Crew-7 mission to the International Space Station. The mission launched to the Space Station on 26-08- 2023. It is her first space flight.
Awards and honors
Moghbeli has received four Air Medals, a Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, and three Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals. She has also received the U.S. Navy Test Pilot School Class 144 Outstanding Developmental Phase II Award and the Commander Willie McCool Outstanding Student Award as the Class 144 Honor Graduate.[1]