Andy Sadhwani - Astronaut 028

Andy was born in Houston, Texas, and his fascination with space began at age 5 after a tour of the Saturn V rocket at NASA. As a kid, he enjoyed watching the interplanetary travel portrayed on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Wars. This budding passion for space was encouraged by his parents who enrolled him in aviation and space camp programs and bought him materials to design and build model airplanes and rockets. After becoming an Eagle Scout, Andy taught the Space Exploration and Astronomy merit badge at numerous scout camps.

In 2004, while watching the NASA channel in his graduate school dormitory, Andy witnessed SpaceShipOne become the first privately crewed spacecraft to reach space – and saw it ultimately win the Ansari X Prize and launch what is now Virgin Galactic. “SpaceShipOne was pivotal in shaping my current career as a propulsion engineer,” he says. “This event encouraged me to save my money for the opportunity to take that same journey as well as earn my education.”

After receiving his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, he went on to complete dual master’s degrees in mechanical engineering and aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University, where he developed hybrid rocket motor technology and contributed to numerous science publications.

Andy currently serves as a principal propulsion engineer at SpaceX. His previous roles include academic researcher at both NASA and Stanford University. Driven by a passion for advancing humanity, Andy works in his spare time as an educator, facilitating technical and soft skills courses and reaching more than 100,000 people to date.

Andy’s spacesuit from ‘Galactic 007’ displays the USA and India flags. The USA flag represents Andy’s country of birth and where he was given opportunities to live out his dreams, and the India flag represents his parent’s country of origin. What started as a trip to NASA when Andy was a child culminated in his dream of going to space. His parents taught him that any altitude is attainable with the right attitude.