Business Development Officer
First Egyptian, African & Arab woman in Space / Engineer, Entrepreneur, Spacesuit PhD Student / CEO at DeepSpaceInitiative
Sara Sabry’s journey is an unconventional one. Her broad interests have continuously pushed her to explore beyond her comfort zone – going all in on the things that mattered.
Her wide range of experiences span from Mechatronics and Computational Fluid Dynamics, to Stem Cell Development (for Neurodegenerative Diseases), Robotic Surgery and Bioastronautics.
Outside of work, Sabry is very passionate about physical well-being and spent time as a Yoga Instructor and CrossFit coach in Egypt. Some of her other hobbies include MMA, Traveling, Scuba Diving, Marine Conservation, Flying and Baking.
Sabry received her Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the American University in Cairo, with concentration in Mechatronics, and double minors in Biology and Chemistry. She then went on to complete a Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Politecnico di Milano in Italy. Currently, she is pursuing her PhD in Aerospace Sciences at The University of North Dakota with focus on Spacesuit Engineering & Design at the UND NASA-funded Human Spaceflight lab.
On August 4th, 2022 – Sara Sabry launched to space on Blue Origin‘s New Shepard rocket (NS-22) and became the first Egyptian Astronaut, and the first African woman and first Arab woman to reach space. Sabry was selected by Space for Humanity to go on a mission to experience the Overview Effect, and bring that back to Earth.
Sabry was selected as the world’s second Citizen Astronaut out of thousands of applicants from all over the world, and her seat to space was fully sponsored by both Space for Humanity and Blue Origin.
In early 2021, Sabry became Egypt’s first female Analog Astronaut after completing a 2-week moon mission simulation at LUNARES in Poland as the crew medical officer. As part of her astronaut training, she successfully completed the IIAS scientist-astronaut training program – a suborbital research qualification program – adding to her list of firsts and making her the first Egyptian woman trained and qualified to do research in space.
In the course of Sabry’s academic and research work, her fascination with the physics of the universe evolved into an excitement for space exploration. Moving to industry, she realized the skills she had acquired in academia and in research were directly transferable. Fresh out of graduate school, Sabry was hired as the deputy CTO of a fast growing tech startup in Berlin focusing on Augmented Reality mobile applications. While working this full-time job, she also led teams of engineers and medical students to address certain Bioastronautics problems, but quickly realized how inaccessible the space field was for someone like her.
That is why Sara Sabry founded Deep Space Initiative (DSI), a non-profit organization that aims to increase accessibility in the space field by providing opportunities in research and education, while enabling deep space exploration for all Humankind.