WRITTEN IN THE STARS

Nurturing a lifelong passion for space travel, rocket scientist Mishaal Ashemimry is helping to craft Saudi Arabia's national space strategy. The inspiring aerospace pioneer plans to train as an astronaut and venture into space herself.

It was a night that Mishaal Ashemimry will never forget. When she was just 6, her mother took her deep into the Saudi Arabian desert to witness the majesty of the distant stars flickering across the sky. That was the night a dream was born—her dream to become a rocket scientist and reach for the stars.

“It was stunning,” Mishaal remembers. l was so curious and had so many questions to ask about the stars. decided that the best way to learn was to go there, and the best way to get there was to become a rocket scientist and design my own rockets.”

With an inquiring mind and insatiable appetite for scientific discovery, it didn’t take long for Mishaal to reach escape velocity. Part of a prize-winning robotics team at her Florida high school, she earned degrees in aerospace engineering and applied mathematics, followed by a MS focused on cutting-edge research into nuclear thermal propulsion.

“These are the types of rockets that one day will be used to send humans to Mars,” she says. Because NASA was interested, won a scholarship and was paid to research their development.”

On her way to fulfilling her dream, Mishaal has faced discrimination challenges that are well-known to female scientists everywhere. That has not stopped her from contributing to more than 20 rocket development programs at a major aerospace company and founding her own business, MISHAAL Aerospace, at the age of 26.