Jahnavi Dangeti's Stellar Journey to Becoming the Youngest Analog Astronaut

Jahnavi Dangeti broke records as the youngest graduate of the Analog Astronaut program at the Analog Astronaut Training Centre (AATC) in Krakow, South Poland in 2022. During an interview with SheThePeople, Jahnavi Dangeti shared how she reached this milestone. She stressed her main advice for youth: don't let society's expectations hold you back. Answer to yourself, and discover your life's purpose. Jahnavi values smart work over hard work. She suggests using time and staying calm to achieve great things. Jahnavi In The Left Side ( Source: Google Images)  NASA caught her eye when she turned 11. Where She grew up, in Palkollu, Andhra Pradesh most kids wanted to be engineers. But Jahnavi set her sights on the moon. In 2019, she joined ISRO World Space Week. At just 16, her project stood out among 2,000 others—this kicked off her ambitious space journey! She later dug into how to become an astronaut and found out they scuba dive to get ready for zero gravity. So she did go 25 kilometres from home to a pool moving her arms and legs in the water. Then a trainer spoke up to her  saying, "I can teach you." She thought he was kidding, but he meant it. From scary ocean jumps to finding calm in the waves,  she ended up as India's youngest advanced scuba diver. During that time, she learned that she had been picked for a 10-day program at NASA— wherein she was the first Indian to get this chance! She could still picture herself standing in front of NASA crying. She spent her time there in awe of the skylabs and Apollo capsules. And that one door with 'NASA' written on it led to many other opportunities for her. In 2022, Poland invited her for a lunar mission where they put her in a moon-like setting. When she arrived, she couldn't believe it—wherein she was on the moon, a man-made moon, but a moon all the same. The 5-year-old Jahnavi inside her was over the moon. For the next 12 days, they tested them to see how humans could survive on the moon. The mission worked out, and she became an analog astronaut. After one rejection, she got into the International Institute for Astronautical Science in Florida.