MPH Graduate Eiman Jahangir Heads to Space with Blue Origin Space Launch
Eiman Jahangir’s lifelong dream to fly into space is scheduled to become a reality on Thursday, Aug. 29.
Jahangir, MD, MPH, associate professor of Medicine and Radiology and director of Cardio-Oncology, is scheduled to lift off on the Blue Origin rocket New Shepard from a launch site in West Texas, Blue Origin announced. The launch window will open at 8 a.m. CST on Aug. 29 and will be livestreamed on Blue Origin’s website, starting 40 minutes prior to the launch (or “T-minus 40 minutes” in space lingo).
Jahangir will be one of a six-person crew on the 11-minute suborbital space flight. He will experience weightlessness for several minutes and get views of planet Earth that little more than 700 people have witnessed.
“I would not say I’m nervous, but I’m excited,” Jahangir said. “I think I’ll be coming back and going right back to clinic. So, it’ll be interesting as to how this might change my perspective in medicine and how I can use this experience to improve.”
The organization MoonDAO chose Jahangir in a worldwide contest in April 2024 to join an upcoming Blue Origin space flight. The organization’s mission is to decentralize and democratize access to space.
In addition to bringing Vanderbilt University pendant flags aboard the flight, Jahangir said he’s received approval to bring a wearable device to collect data, including his heart rate variability and respiratory rate.
His flight is also associated with two studies; one is Vanderbilt’s Clonal Hematopoiesis and Inflammation in the Vasculature (CHIVE) registry and biorepository study. The research is exploring genetic mutations in blood stem cells and if pre- and post-flight have an effect, Jahangir said. The other, the Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA) study, looks specifically at astronauts and how space affects the immune system and genetic expression, Jahangir said.
Though Jahangir won his seat by chance in the MoonDAO contest, he has pursued becoming an astronaut for more than 15 years. He was twice a finalist to become a NASA astronaut and has participated in multiple simulations to prepare for one day being in space.
Jahangir grew up in Nashville, graduated from Martin Luther King Jr. High School, and has been interested in science and space since the age of 4. He and his family (including his brother, Alex Jahangir, MD, MMHC, professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Vanderbilt) took regular trips to NASA’s U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
His love of science and commitment to service drew him to pursue a career in medicine, but he never lost his interest in space.
Around the time Jahangir obtained his medical degree from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, he took a family trip to Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the astronaut bug bit hard. By the time he arrived at Vanderbilt for a clinical fellowship in cardiology, he had researched how to become an astronaut and learned that much of his medical training also prepared him for NASA’s requirements.
He first applied to NASA in 2008, made the short list, applied again in 2013, and again was short-listed. Though he was not selected, he trained with astronauts and pursued training privately. Last year, he was part of a four-person crew sealed into a pressurized habitat called Biosphere 2 for six days. Hermetically sealed and pressurized, he got even more of a taste for space.
Jahangir joined the faculty at Vanderbilt in 2019, and his primary clinical focus has been the care of patients who experience cardiovascular conditions or side effects from their cancer treatments.
“Dr. Jahangir is a shining example of the multifaceted talents of our outstanding faculty,” said Daniel Muñoz, MD, MPA, executive medical director of Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute and interim co-director of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. “He has pursued his lifelong dream of space exploration with the same focus and passion with which he cares for patients. We wish for him a safe journey, and we can’t wait to hear his firsthand account of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”