First Iranian-American man to journey to house tells his story

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Cardiologist Dr. Eiman Jahangir was born throughout a warfare in Tehran, Iran, and immigrated to the United States at age 4, settling in Nashville, Tennessee. He grew up with desires of changing into a physician and touring to house, and his new guide chronicles his childhood formed by the Iran-Iraq War and journey changing into the primary Iranian-American man to journey to house and the world’s first industrial doctor astronaut.

Excerpted from A Heart for Space: An Astronaut’s Guide to Achieving the Impossible by Eiman Jahangir, MD. Copyright © 2026. Published by Forefront Books, distributed by Simon & Schuster. Reprinted with permission.

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Ten Minutes, Forty Years

When I did not even attain the interview stage in 2017, 2021, and 2025—at ages thirty-six, forty, and forty-four, respectively—it was clear that my door to NASA was shutting.

It was MoonDAO that lastly gave me my ticket to house. A bunch of people determined to lift cash via donations on-line to ship somebody to house. In one month, MoonDAO raised sufficient cash to purchase two tickets on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. The first seat was reserved for a media influencer, and the neighborhood chosen Coby Cotton from Dude Perfect to be their first astronaut. He flew to house on August 4, 2022. The second seat was put ahead with a raffle.

The preliminary drawing was in 2022. We have been on our babymoon, shortly earlier than our daughter, Aylah, was born. I sat within the resort foyer whereas my spouse was asleep, watching the raffle drawing, ready to see if I had received. I didn’t. Another blow.

A yr handed, and the neighborhood and I have been nonetheless ready for MoonDAO to ship their second astronaut to house. It by no means occurred. For a number of causes, the preliminary winner was unable to fly with Blue Origin. MoonDAO had to return to the drafting board to pick out one other astronaut. Over the course of that yr, I had continued to benefit from the trip. I made pals with neighborhood members at MoonDAO, participated in occasions with them, and simply was grateful to be round different house nerds. Still, I held hope I might discover a approach to house.

In late 2023, they repeated the raffle. Again, I entered. Again, I waited. This time I used to be sitting at our kitchen desk with my spouse and youngsters watching the drawing. They drew ten tickets, with the ultimate ticket drawn being the grand-prize winner of a flight to house. I watched them decide every ticket. With every draw, my quantity was not picked. It was like a countdown to launch: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 . . . after which mine was drawn! Fourth place . . . I had not received. I used to be bummed.

Amber appeared up at me, smiling. “Don’t count yourself out,” she stated. “You are closer to achieving this dream than you have been since you interviewed with NASA in 2013. If three people drop out or get disqualified, then you have your ticket to space.”

I waited. Months glided by, and MoonDAO had not introduced their second astronaut. Then, on April 8, 2024, as I used to be driving again from Bloomington, Indiana, with my household after watching the entire photo voltaic eclipse, I bought a message on my cellphone. It was Pablo Moncada-Larrotiz from MoonDAO. He wished to speak. I assumed he would supply me a ticket to view the launch—a ticket I’d fortunately take! We deliberate a name for the subsequent day.

I used to be in clinic, between seeing sufferers, when he referred to as. I rushed to my workplace to take it. Without a lot prologue, Pablo informed me I had received the seat. I couldn’t imagine it. I referred to as my spouse as quickly as I bought off with Pablo after which hurried all the way down to my brother’s workplace and informed him. I used to be going to house!

Liftoff

For the 4 months from my April 2024 cellphone name from MoonDAO to after I flew to house on August 29, 2024, I used to be on cloud 9. I couldn’t imagine I’d lastly fulfill my dream. In reality, it nonetheless felt prefer it may very well be taken away at any second. Honestly, even after I arrived at Blue Origin’s Astronaut Village exterior of Van Horn, Texas—the location the place astronauts spend their nights throughout coaching—I felt like my flight may not occur. I used to be having fun with each second, from the sunsets and the meals to the comradery and the coaching . . . however I wished to be on that rocket listening to the countdown.

Finally, the day got here, a fruits of roughly twenty years of labor, from first trying up the {qualifications} to turn into an astronaut in March 2005 to flying on a single-stage rocket into house in August 2024.

The evening earlier than, I barely slept. I wakened at 2 a.m. and went via my day, checking emails and texts from all my family and friends wishing me a protected flight, and simply being pumped my day had arrived. After a light-weight breakfast with little or no espresso (I didn’t need to pee in a diaper whereas strapped to the rocket), we headed to the Astronaut Training Center for an outline of our morning and operations.

As we have been driving to the launchpad, the rocket loomed over us, filled with gasoline, ready to roar into house. We made our method up the elevator and boarded the crew capsule. As I strapped into Seat 6, my coronary heart began racing, and my breath turned fast. I wasn’t nervous; I by no means feared being on a rocket. I used to be simply excited—excited that I used to be about to satisfy twenty years of planning and forty years of dreaming, to satisfy what that four-year-old boy trying up on the Nashville sky realized: that rockets weren’t scary—they have been our path to exploration. They have been our future.

We waited in our seats, and the clock started ticking down. When mission management lastly stated, “We are go for launch,” I knew it was taking place. This rocket was about to come back to life. No one would pull me off this mission. I used to be about to turn into the primary Iranian-American man in house and the primary doctor on a industrial launch, making my flight not simply the tip of a private objective however a historic mission. The countdown clock saved ticking, then over the audio system I heard, “10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 . . . ignition.”

Grounded Again

I climbed aboard the Reusable Space Ship (RSS) First Step with my 5 crewmates: Ephraim Rabin, Nicolina Elrick, Eugene Grin, Rob Ferl, and Karsen Kitchen. We strapped into our seats and sat anxiously ready for the countdown. As the engines got here to life, the roar was deafening, and the orange glow from the engine fireplace reflecting via the capsule was like stepping right into a furnace. Seven seconds: That is how lengthy it took to realize sufficient pressure to maneuver us up, up, and away. It was a lot smoother than I anticipated, however fairly quick. We reached a prime velocity of two,238 miles per hour. I appeared out my window, tears rolling down my face as I lastly fulfilled my dream, watching the Earth transfer farther away because the altimeter clocked our ascent.

I bear in mind seeing 30,000 ft come and go (that is the place most planes fly), then 100,000 ft (the peak of most house balloons). We continued to climb till immediately the blueness of the sky was the blackness of house. It was not a gradual change however a sudden one, as if I had simply opened my eyes. We had ascended 342,314 ft (104 km), placing us above the Kármán Line, the internationally accepted border of house (100 km). That four-year-old boy who began dreaming of house after setting foot in America was now trying down on the Earth from house.

I unbuckled my belt rapidly, not understanding what to anticipate. I floated towards the ceiling. It was as if a delicate hand have been choosing me up. I couldn’t imagine it; I had made it. I used to be in house. I raced to tug out my zero-g indicator, a crocheted coronary heart, and let it float round. I appeared out the window for a view I had waited my complete life to absorb. It was greater than I ever anticipated. Being bathed in earthlight—the shine reflecting off the Earth, as Inspiration4 pilot Dr. Sian Proctor describes it—was unbelievable. It was brighter than something I had imagined. The colours have been so vibrant. The blue, white, and brown all so alive. I floated there in awe, amazed at what I used to be .

Then I shifted my gaze up simply barely and noticed the vastness and darkness of house. It was the blackest black I’ve ever seen, like staring into an inkwell. I simply gazed, unable to grasp what was earlier than me and understanding that our ambiance, our Earth, is dwelling—a house we should always defend in any respect prices.

My perspective shifted. I knew that after I returned to Earth, I’d pursue a brand new dream, a dream to share my expertise and encourage children and adults to pursue onerous issues.

The whole flight was ten minutes and eight seconds—not lengthy when it comes to the issues we do. No probability to orbit the Earth and ponder the depths of the universe intimately. Much like a lowercase n, you fly up very quick, detach from the rocket, and begin flying as you attain apogee (the best level of the flight), after which fall again to Earth. But to get to these ten minutes took forty years of dreaming and twenty years of hustling. It was not the long run I anticipated, rising up with plans to be a NASA astronaut, however it was the long run I used to be given, and one I’m grateful for.

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A Heart for Space: An Astronaut’s Guide to Achieving the Impossible by Eiman Jahangir, MD will probably be out there wherever books are offered on August 25, 2026.

 

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