2018_Unadkat_Meera.jpeg

MEERA UNADKAT

  • Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2018

  • University of Washington, Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering, '19

  • Host Institution: Virgin Orbit

  • Mentor: Cristin Dorgelo

Meera is a structures engineer at Generation Orbit, a small start-up rocket company in Atlanta, Georgia, where she is in charge of designing, analyzing, and assembling the X-60A’s payload fairing. She also ensures that customer payloads will integrate successfully into the rocket structure and will remain secure during flight.

Meera was born and raised in Seattle and recently graduated magna cum laude from the University of Washington with a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering and a minor in Mathematics. While at UW, she was treasurer of the AIAA student chapter and also volunteered regularly at the local Boys and Girls Club where she helped teach science experiments to students after school. Meera also worked in two aerospace structures research labs and was a part of the structures team on the UW rocket club, SARP (Society for Advanced Rocket Propulsion). This past summer, Meera traveled down to Spaceport America in New Mexico, where she saw her team’s hybrid rocket launched for the first time at the 2019 IREC competition. It was truly one of the most amazing and rewarding experiences in her life, and she still can’t believe that she gets to continue building rockets for her career.

As a 2018 Brooke Owens Fellow, Meera worked at Virgin Orbit on the first stage structures team. She designed and manufactured a test stand for critical fasteners on LauncherOne, and collected data on the torque versus tension relationship. Much of what she learned during her summer internship were lessons that she applied during her senior year while on SARP, and still currently apply as a structures engineer.

In the future, Meera wants to continue designing, building, and launching as many rockets as physically possible. She would also love to head back to graduate school and pursue a PhD. in Aeronautics and Astronautics, as she is passionate about becoming a mentor for future aerospace engineers and continuing her structures research.