SGx2023 - YP Lightning Talk, Rachita Puri, 'Regulatory Preparation for Commercial Human Spaceflight'

SGx Day 2 Young Professional/Student Speakers

For the first time in SGx history, attendees had the opportunity to hear from other students and young professionals as part of our new Day 2 (March 14) “Young Professional / Student Speaker” sessions – generously sponsored by Northrop Grumman.

Rachita Puri - Aerospace Engineer, Federal Aviation Administration Office of Commercial Space Transportation
Talk Title: “Regulatory Preparation for U.S. Commercial Human Spaceflight”

Rachita Puri is an Aerospace Engineer at the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (FAA AST) in Washington D.C. In her role at AST, she leads the safety authorization for U.S. commercial space operations, specifically as the licensing lead for SpaceX-Dragon and Blue Origin-New Shepard missions. Rachita also engages with other government stakeholders as AST’s licensing liaison to NASA, U.S. Coast Guard, and the U.S. State Department. As a member of the Human Spaceflight team working on regulatory preparation initiatives, she represented AST at the 2022 International Astronautical Congress in Paris. Rachita is passionate about advancing space exploration through sustained international collaboration, and she is actively involved with the Space Generation Advisory Council as the Space Safety and Sustainability Project Group Co-Lead and as a Programs Coordinator for the 2023 Space Generation Fusion Forum. Rachita holds a Bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering with Honors from The Ohio State University, and she specialized in the Global Option in Engineering Program to complete aerospace internships in India and Poland.