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Passion, Persistence and Opportunity at UCF Lead to Grad’s Space Career

February 20, 2026
Nov. 13, 2025, 3:55 p.m. Jillian Gloria ’22 stands on a balcony at Blue Origin headquarters in Cape Canaveral, Florida, her eyes fixed on the horizon at Launch Complex 36 — the very launchpad her grandfather helped construct as a NASA engineer in the 1960s. Engines ignite. Gloria’s breath catches as she wills the rocket to […]

Aerospace Engineering Graduate Lands Job at Blue Origin

July 26, 2024
Recent aerospace graduate, Nicolas Afanador ‘24 recently landed a job at Blue Origin, a spaceflight company working to create a sustainable future in which millions of people live and work in space. Afanador will be working as a Structural Test Engineer in the Lunar Permanence division and was attracted to Blue Origin’s presence in the […]

UCF Alum Expands Business, Receives Support From Blue Origin

March 1, 2023
Abhishek Sastri ’20 built a business on cooling technology for high-performance computers. Now, the UCF mechanical engineering alumnus plans to take the business one step further by developing cooling technology for data centers around the world. The coolant is unlike anything created on Earth. It’s created in microgravity, and has already received recognition from Blue Origin. Sastri’s company, […]