About

Bidushi Bhattacharya is a space scientist with over 30 years of experience in spacecraft development, academic administration, and scientific research. She is the founder and CEO of AstroHub, a startup dedicated to space workforce development. As CEO, she has brought together a global team of passionate engineers to develop and implement a unique, remote access learning platform for companies, universities, and schools around the world. AstroHub has also acquired and completed a number of commercial contracts to broker and manage student payload deliveries to the International Space Station. Dr. Bhattacharya's NASA experience includes technical roles on the Hubble Space Telescope, the Terra Satellite for the Earth Observation System, the Galileo Mission to Jupiter, and the ESA Herschel Space Observatory. She has also worked as a NASA mission scientist at the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Bhattacharya holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in space physics from UCLA as well as dual degrees from Rutgers University, a B.S. in mechanical engineering and a B.A. in physics. She has authored over 100 publications in The Astrophysical Journal, Harvard Business Review, and other publications. As a thought leader, Dr. Bhattacharya speaks regularly to the media and has appeared on the BBC, Bloomberg, and The Space Channel. She is a TEDx speaker and regularly gives invited talks about the commercial space sector. In her past roles, Dr. Bhattacharya established the Office of Sponsored Research for the multidisciplinary science program at Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, and Scripps colleges and managed a portfolio of USD $4 million+ of government funding. She also worked closely with university and JPL/Caltech operations teams to ensure high-quality data generation for the astronomical community. Dr. Bhattacharya's tech stack includes research scientist skills. Overall, she has 34.70 years of relevant experience in the space industry.