Bazaar Belief: Meet Mishaal Ashemimry, the First Saudi Woman to join NASA as She Paves the Way for Space Exploration
Her mother’s strength, her father’s heartwarming advice, and stargazing as a child up in the Unayzah desert — the Saudi-American Aerospace Engineer speaks on what motivates her sky-high ambitions
What part of your work are you most proud of?
I am very proud that I am part of advancing future space systems and designing technologies for space exploration.
Who is your career role model and why?
My mother, because she is strong, positive, patient and full of hope.
What aspects of your job do you enjoy the most?
I enjoy development of new rockets and spacecrafts that will enable space missions of the future.
Defining career moment?
Starting my own rocket company.
Proudest achievement?
A successful static test of my hybrid rocket boosters for Mishaal Aerospace Corporation.
What inspires you most about your job?
Pushing the envelope of what we can achieve in space and enabling deeper and more complex missions that uncover the mysteries of our universe.
Describe yourself in three words…
Ambitious, determined and resilient
Best piece of advice to yourself or someone launching in your field?
Do not be afraid to fail, because failure is the seed from which success grows.
What do you still want to learn and why?
I want to learn how we can harness the energy or matter in space to enable more capable spacecrafts and rockets. I find this important, because if we can use what is readily available in space, then we do not need to carry our own fuel and hence we can explore our universe faster and uncover new science.
What life-defining moment changed the way you think about everything?
When I gazed up to the sky at night in the Unayzah desert of Saudi Arabia and saw the stars. I was six years old and that was when I fell in love and decided to become a rocket scientist with the goal of travelling to space.
Favourite motto you live your life by – and who said it?
In life: “hardship builds character” – my dad. At least, that’s who I heard it from.
From Harper’s Bazaar Saudi Summer Issue 2021.