Indian-American Swati Varshney Could Be First Woman to Jump from Earth’s Stratosphere – News18

Swati Varshney, the daring Indian-American skydiver with 1,200 career jumps, is on the verge of making history by becoming the first woman to jump from Earth’s stratosphere.

The stratosphere is the second major layer of Earth’s atmosphere just above the troposphere and below the mesosphere. It extends from about 12 to 50 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, where temperature generally increases with altitude due to the presence of the ozone layer.

As part of the Hera Rising project by the NGO Rising United, Varshney aims to elevate a woman higher into Earth’s atmosphere than ever before. This initiative seeks to break gender barriers and provide educational outreach in both Spanish and English. The selected participant will undergo 18 months of training while the others contribute to ground support.

The Indian-American scientist is among three “explorers” aiming to achieve this remarkable feat by 2025. In an exclusive interview with Space.com, she discussed her passion for heights and how her skydiving journey began.

“My academic progression and my career trajectory have been really intertwined with skydiving as it went along. So I started skydiving. I just did a tandem skydive as a thing to do to check off your bucket list, right? And I went and did it and I had an absolute blast. I had so much fun doing it. I felt really comfortable in freefall,” she said in the interview.

When asked about her hopes for this experience, she said, “I don’t know if I have a perfect answer for you yet. But the way I thought about this project is it’s a perfect combination of some of my key interests. It’s science and engineering, my career. It’s skydiving as a hobby, and then also my passion for representation and inclusion in both of those spheres, actually.”

“I’ve done a lot of work on highlighting diversity and underrepresented minorities in the outdoor sports community, as well as trying to engage women and underrepresented minorities to pursue STEM careers. To have all three of those interests in one spot and one project — and to have a single thing to work on instead of my brain split in three different directions — it’s really incredible,” she added.