Baldwin HS graduate now spacecraft commander

Baldwin Senior High School graduate Jasmin Moghbeli has been selected to travel to the International Space Station on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission. Moghbeli has been assigned as the spacecraft commander and will be joined by European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen who’ll act as pilot.

The mission is expected to launch no earlier than 2023 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) legendary Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Moghbeli, Mogensen, and the additional mission specialists who’ll be announced at a later date will join an expedition crew aboard the space station.

This will be the first space flight for Moghbeli, who became a NASA astronaut in 2017, selected to be in the Astronaut Candidate Class. She is also a member of NASA’s Artemis team, meaning she may potentially journey to the moon for a future mission.

During her time in the United States Marine Corps, she was no stranger to leaving the Earth. As an AH-1W Super Cobra pilot and Marine Corps test pilot, she had over 150 combat missions and 2,000 hours of flight time in over 25 different aircraft.

Moghbeli was born in Bad Nauheim, Germany but grew up in Baldwin and considers it her hometown. She holds a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a master’s degree in aerospace from the Naval Postgraduate School and a graduate of Naval test Pilot School.

She has been awarded four Air Medals, two Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medals, three Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals and various other unit commendations. Also being awarded the US Navy Test Pilot School Class 144 Outstanding Developmental Phase II Award and the Commander Willie McCool Outstanding Student Award as the Class 144 Honor Graduate.