05/19/2026
For this week’s hashtag , we celebrate Anita Sengupta, an aerospace engineer, entrepreneur, and innovator whose work has advanced planetary exploration, aerospace systems, and sustainable aviation technologies.
Anita earned both her M.S. and Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California before beginning her career at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. There, she became the lead systems engineer for the parachute system used during the landing of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover in 2012, helping ensure one of the most complex and successful Mars landings in history.
She also led development and testing of the NASA Orion spacecraft drogue parachute system used for Artemis program re-entry missions, contributing to the future of human deep-space exploration. Later, Anita served as project manager for the Cold Atom Laboratory aboard the International Space Station, a groundbreaking quantum physics facility enabling experiments at temperatures near absolute zero in microgravity.
In addition to her engineering accomplishments, Anita is a passionate science communicator and educator. She has delivered TEDx talks, keynote addresses, podcasts, and media appearances around the world, helping make aerospace and emerging technologies more accessible to the public. She also serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Astronautical Engineering at USC and is a member of the United Nations Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition.
Anita’s career reflects the power of combining technical excellence, entrepreneurship, and public engagement to shape the future of aerospace and sustainable technology.
