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"Creativity's at the core of everything we do, whether medicine or space," says astronaut Dr. Shawna Pandya.

And in approximately two years, she'll be exercising her creativity in microgravity--as Canada's first commercial female astronaut!

In June 2024, Canada's International Institute for Astronautical Sciences announced Dr. Pandya's appointment as Astronaut 002 on a first-of-its-kind suborbital research mission.

A suborbital spaceflight

With teammates Kelli Gerardi and Dr. Norah Patten, Dr. Pandya is scheduled to fly aboard Virgin Galactic's new Delta spacecraft, with the goals of advancing human-tended microgravity research, in 2026. The mission, IIAS-02, follows a highly successful inaugural research spaceflight flown by Kelli Girardi, in November 2023.

We first had the pleasure of talking with Dr. Pandya in 2021. Among her many professional classifications, she is: a neurologist; Director of IIAS' Space Medicine Group, Vice-President of Immersive Medicine at Luxsonic Technologies, Inc.; and IIAS' Chief Instructor of Space Medicine and Extreme Environments.

And spaceflight was her dream, long before she completed her scientist astronaut training at IIAS in 2015.

Dr. Pandya talked about the upcoming IIAS-02 mission, shared some of the activities involved in team preparations and explained the applications of creativity in her daily work.