Helo pilot among new astronauts

Major Jasmin Moghbeli has flown more than 25 types of aircraft in her career as a Marine Corps aviator and test pilot, including the H-1 Cobra helicopter that she flew for deployments in Afghanistan, Middle East, and Japan. But one of the most challenging things she’s learned is how to operate in NASA’s Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuit. She’s one 11 NASA and two Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronauts to graduate from the newest class of astronauts, nicknamed the “Turtles.” “You can’t imagine what it’s like to be in that spacesuit until you get in there and do it, because astronauts do these spacewalks and they make it look so easy,” she told Vertical on Jan. 10, the day she graduated. “But when you actually get in there, you’re in your own little spacecraft, and you have to learn how to work within that and not fight it.” Additional graduates include Lt. Col. (Dr). Frank Rubio, an Army surgeon who has logged more than 1,100 hours in the Black Hawk; test pilots Raja Chari, Matthew Dominick, and Bob Hines, and CSA astronaut Joshua Kutryk. Moghbeli grew up in Baldwin, NY, and earned a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering with information technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was a commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marines in 2005, and completed flight training at Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola, Fla., in 2008. She was then selected to fly the AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter, her top choice. (Source: Vertical 01/13/20) https://www.verticalmag.com/news/nasa-astronaut-jasmin-moghbeli-cobra-pilot/