Editor’s note: This article published Aug. 26 was updated on Aug. 28 and Aug. 29 with photos and an interview with Jahangir once he was back from the flight .
Eiman Jahangir blasted off into space just after 8 a.m. on Aug. 29 on a suborbital flight aboard the Blue Origin rocket, New Shepherd, and landed safely on Earth.
Jahangir, MD, MPH, associate professor of Medicine and Radiology and director of Cardio-Oncology, was one of a six-person crew on the NS-26 flight that lifted off and landed in the West Texas desert in just over 10 minutes. It was the culmination of Jahangir’s longtime dream to go to space.
“As it started lifting off, I truly became emotional,” Jahangir said in a VUMC News interview just hours after returning to Earth. “I had tears in my eyes because I understood that this was 20 years in the making, and I was finally fulfilling that dream I had set forth, and I was able to appreciate it. I truly relished that.”
He experienced weightlessness for several minutes and looked back at planet Earth from outer space, something only about 700 people have ever done.
“It is so immensely powerful both seeing the Earth and the curvature and the colors and seeing just the darkness that we never appreciate,” he said.
He recalled the bright sun shining through the windows of his capsule, unfiltered by the Earth’s atmosphere, bathing him in immense brightness and warmth.
“Every piece of it was just immense and breathtaking,” he said.
In addition to bringing Vanderbilt University pendant flags aboard the flight, Jahangir brought a wearable device to collect data, including his heart rate variability and respiratory rate.
Jahangir said he now dreams of another suborbital flight, and one day going into orbit. He hopes many more people have the same experience.
“We need to try to make it to where other people can experience this because I think it makes you more humble and maybe a little more gracious.”
Jahangir said he will be back in his VUMC cardiology clinic on Tuesday, and he said he will appreciate how small the Earth is in the universe and feel gratitude for the experience.
From Aug. 26, 2024 coverage
Jahangir believes he is not only the first Nashvillian to fly into space, but the first Metro Nashville Public Schools graduate to do so. He said he’s looking forward to sharing his experience with students.
“It’s good to have big dreams, and it’s good to surround yourself with people that will support those dreams and try to make actionable goals … to get to that dream,” he said. “The way I got to space was fortunate, but I would not have been looking if I’d given up on this dream a long time ago, and I don’t think I would have had as profound of an experience if I wasn’t cognizant of how … immensely fortunate I am to have this opportunity.”
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.
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.
His love of science and commitment to service drew him to pursue a career in medicine, but he never lost his interest in space.
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.
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.”