Jameel Janjua discusses his interest in spaceflight, the fastest aircraft he has flown, the effect of supersonic speed on the body, attending Wharton, and his first time in space.
Since the advent of human spaceflight in 1961, fewer than 700 people have been to space, and one of them is Jameel Janjua, an MBA student at the Wharton School.
On June 8, Janjua, a spaceline pilot and astronaut with Virgin Galactic, copiloted VSS Unity to 287,011 feet (or around 54 miles) into space at Mach 2.96 (2,271 miles per hour).
With this feat, he fulfilled a lifelong dream, 40-plus years in the making, and one that appeared as if it would never come to pass.
After earning his undergraduate degree from the Royal Military College of Canada and his master’s from MIT, Janjua, who is from Alberta, Canada, became an F/A-18 pilot and fighter weapons instructor for the Royal Canadian Air Force. In 2009, he applied to be an astronaut for the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Canada’s version of NASA. The CSA, recruiting astronauts for the first time in 17 years, was admitting two people. Janjua made it to the final four, but ultimately was not selected.
Dismayed and disheartened, he thought his dream of going to space was over—until he was hired 11 years later by Virgin Galactic.
“I think it’s an important message to share,” he says. “A lot of time we talk about all the things that went right in our lives—and that’s really important, and is inspirational as well, especially for young people and college students—but I think it’s even more powerful to hear the back story of these successes, when all hopes seem lost in the pursuit of a dream. I want to share my journey and how I have managed to do some incredible things, such as flying to space; how I was able to forge a path toward my dream and reach for the stars although it seemed impossible after I wasn’t selected to be a government astronaut. I did work really hard, but I also had meaningful mentors. I got lucky breaks too, to be fair, at the right time.”
Penn Today spoke with Janjua about his interest in spaceflight, the fastest aircraft he has flown, the effect of supersonic speed on the body, attending Wharton, and his first time in space.
This story is by Greg Johnson. Read more here at Penn Today
Posted: January 3, 2025