“Space is for questing and wondering, for exploring unanswered questions about the universe and ourselves.” Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, (1994).
Except for the few using aviation as a means of transport, we walk or use vehicles with wheels to commute to work. There is something comforting about gravity keeping our feet planted on terra firma. But some find this boring and seek adventures, such as climbing mountains, deep sea diving or skiing down slopes at speeds that challenge one’s ability to remain upright.
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For Jameel Janjua, earthly adventures and delights were not interesting enough. He decided he wanted to see the earth from beyond the atmosphere. And he just accomplished that, leaving behind clogged highways and traveling on the supersonic space skyway, without traffic lights, no speed limits, and nary a vehicle or person in sight – just the blue oceans below, the curvature and bright colors of humanity’s home on one side of his window, and the unfathomable infinity and darkness of space on the other.
“It takes a while to process,” says Jameel of his experience, finding it difficult to articulate his thoughts. The suborbital flight was about 20 minutes long but “One sees the most vibrant colors imaginable,” he recounts, “and the tiniest sliver of the atmosphere that is responsible for supporting life as we know it.” That moment, he says, “…made me feel so small and insignificant – humbling and comforting at the same time.” Climate change naysayers may well reconsider if granted the same fragile scenic vista.
“Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet,” said physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking, a vision Jameel has taken to heart. These Virgin Galactic commercial space flights allow more earth-bound residents to experience microgravity, and see their earthly abode from beyond the skies.
Seemingly alone in the universe with one other fellow pilot and four commercial passengers in a spaceship streaming through space 50 miles above earth, and reaching a speed of 2,300 miles per hour was exhilarating for Jameel, and the achievement of a life-long ambition.
Jameel’s flight career
First carousel
Prior to this experience, Jameel had been an instructor in the U.S. Air Force’s Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California. When he heard about an opening for a Virgin Galactic pilot to fly its spaceship VSS Unity, he applied immediately, and was selected based on his career and training. Up to this point, he had piloted Virgin Galactic’s VMS Eve, a twin fuselage plane that reaches 45,000 feet above earth before releasing spaceship Unity that is attached to a wing that connects the fuselages. This time, he would be in that spaceship rocketing into the cosmic abyss.
Jameel believes the market for space tourism will only expand and be accessed by many more people from diverse backgrounds. He asks rhetorically, “What happens when we start taking athletes, songwriters, poets, teachers, grandmothers, people who teach piano?” He hopes that they will “…look back on Earth, and hopefully use that experience to make it a better place.”
Virgin Galactic mothership
Inevitably, the question had to be asked: what does he think of life beyond the earth? “As a scientist and engineer, “he replies, “it may be unlikely that there is life out there as we know it but it would be awfully odd if there were no other living organisms, of any form, anywhere else in the Universe.”
Some are critical of government funding for space exploration when we have homelessness and poverty at home. He acknowledges that those are priorities that should be addressed but human space exploration has been instrumental in improving the quality of life of all. Examples include satellite communication and the navigation systems we use in cars, planes and ships, cell phone technology, and medical and pharmaceutical research. Even Jameel’s flight was a science laboratory for experiments in 3D printing technology and fluid dynamics that may eventually become practical applications.
As long ago as 1895, the prescient Konstantin Tsiolkovsky wrote in The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices, “The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but Mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever.” Little did he know then, that some 75 years later, Neil Armstrong would walk on the Moon. So, though he is modest about his achievements, Jameel is in a very select group of pioneers, who boldly go where few others dare.
What was the career trajectory that allowed Jameel to soar into space? With Tanzanian-born parents who moved to Calgary, he had an early fascination with flight after visiting airshows with his father and brother, while young, and he received a glider’s pilot license at age 16. Later, he was the top graduating student at the Royal Military College of Canada, receiving the Governor-General’s Silver Medal.
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Going on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Jameel obtained a master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics. Following graduate school, he continued his training with the Royal Canadian Air Force as a fighter pilot, and has flown in 65 different aircraft. He was also one of only four Canadians in over 70 years to win the Liethen-Tittle Award as the top graduate of the USAF Test Pilot School.
Despite his momentous flight and airborne preferences, Jameel still remains grounded, saying that he “…wants to help young people realize that there are no limits to what [they] can do. Study to be the best, work with those around you, and consider non-traditional careers. We should not limit ourselves in our social contributions.”
Jameel is planning to continue his career doing what he loves best, as a test pilot at Virgin Galactic, and skiing with his two young boys, usually at Whistler. Both boys have been gliding with their father since an early age.
Never one to rest on his laurels, Jameel is also pursuing an Executive MBA at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. But whatever path he chooses in the future, flying is part of his DNA.” Never stop looking up,” is his mantra, and he will take to the skies as long as he can see the stars above, and wonder how high he can fly.
Far higher than the rest of us, that is for certain, for a gravity-defying view from beyond.
