Nashville cardiologist and space enthusiast returns from suborbital flight

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Out of the billions of people in the world, only about 700 can say they’ve been to space.

As of last week, a doctor from Vanderbilt University Medical Center can also join the list.

Dr. Eiman Jahangir is a cardiologist and space enthusiast.

“I mean, ever since I was little, I’ve been fascinated by space,” said Dr. Eiman Jahangir.

Jahangir, 44, told me about volunteering at the Adventure Science Center when he was younger. He said the Mission to Mars exhibit stuck with him.

“I thought, ‘People will go to Mars?!’ Because at that time NASA was working on plans to send people to Mars,” Jahangir said.

On Thursday, August 29, Jahangir and five other civilians boarded Blue Orbit’s reusable New Shepard spacecraft. As they shot into space at 2,200 miles per hour, Jahangir fulfilled a dream.

“I imagined myself as that person for a long time, but there was no guarantee I would achieve it,” he said.

In the 1990s, Jahangir—an ambitious student at Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School—made a commitment to one day fly into space. For the past two decades, Jahangir has been trying to become a NASA astronaut, twice being a finalist.

Earlier this year, he finally earned his ticket to space through online space community MoonDAO, which funded his place. He was one of 2,200 ordinary people from around the world who entered a competition to win a spot on the journey.

I asked him what it was like looking back at Earth. He said he was struck by how dark it was around them.

“You have this beautiful, light blue and white, majestic Earth that’s protecting all of us, and then all of a sudden, like a line, it goes dark. It was amazing. You know, I can close my eyes and still see it very clearly,” he said.

In addition to the Vanderbilt gadgets, Jahangir brought with him aboard a device used to collect data on heart and respiratory rates in space.

Jahangir hopes that through his experience he can encourage the next generation of dreamers to never give up on their goals.

“I’ve always been told that you set a goal and then you go after it. You work hard to achieve it. You break it down into small pieces and do what you can. Sometimes these opportunities come up and you have to be prepared for them,” he said.

Jahangir is the first graduate of Metro Nashville Public Schools and the first Iranian to fly into space.

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If you want to see what pure joy looks like, watch this story. Chris Davis and photojournalist Bud Nelson did a great job of highlighting a simple idea that probably means the world to these families. Enjoy!

-Carrie Sharp