“The mission was led by Aroh Barjatya, a professor of engineering physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, where he directs the Space and Atmospheric Instrumentation Lab,” NASA said in a statement.
Aroh Barjatya, currently a professor of engineering physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, spearheaded the mission from the Space and Atmospheric Instrumentation Lab. The ‘Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP)’ sounding rockets took flight from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
Expressing his gratitude, Aroh thanked his fellow researchers, students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and the teams at NASA Wallops Sounding Rocket Program Office and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for their support in accomplishing six rocket missions within six months.
“My deepest gratitude to all my fellow researchers at collaborating institutions and insanely capable and stellar students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, as well as, most crucially, to everyone at NASA Wallops Sounding Rocket Program Office and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for helping accomplish six complex rocket missions in six months!!!” Aroh said in a post on LinkedIn after the launch.
Son of Ashok Kumar Barjatya, a chemical engineer, and Rajeshwari, a homemaker, Aroh’s educational journey saw him attend schools in various Indian cities – Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Pilani – before pursuing electronics engineering at Walchand Institute of Technology, Solapur. In 2001, he moved to the US, where he obtained a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Utah State University and later completed his PhD in spacecraft instrumentation from the same institution, as shared by his sister Apurva Barjatya, a mechanical engineer.