Mishaal Ashemimry

Mishaal Ashemimry is a Saudi-American aerospace engineer, rocket scientist, entrepreneur, and one of the most compelling voices in the global space industry. The first female aerospace engineer in the Gulf Cooperation Council, she has spent her career at the intersection of cutting-edge propulsion science, national space strategy, and the kind of barrier-breaking ambition that turns six-year-olds staring at desert skies into architects of a nation’s future in space. Born in the United States and raised between Atlanta and Saudi Arabia, her passion for the cosmos was ignited at age six while gazing at the Milky Way above the Unayzah desert — a moment that set her on a path from Florida Institute of Technology laboratories to the strategy rooms of Saudi Arabia’s most consequential space institutions.

Science and innovation speaker Mishaal Ashemimry built her technical foundation at Florida Tech, earning dual Bachelor’s degrees in Aerospace Engineering and Applied Mathematics and a Master’s in Aerospace Engineering — with her graduate research funded by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, where she designed a novel grooved-ring reactor concept for nuclear thermal propulsion, work published at the AIAA Joint Propulsion Conference. She went on to contribute to 22 rocket programs at Raytheon Missile Systems, then served as a Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion Consultant at Northrop Grumman, where she also assessed international capabilities in nuclear propulsion — making her a critical voice in global aerospace policy before she was 40.

Architect of Saudi Arabia’s Space Future

At 26, Ashemimry founded MISHAAL Aerospace in Miami — developing the M-Rocket series, a line of cost-effective launch vehicles designed to carry small satellites to Low Earth Orbit, and completing a successful hybrid rocket propulsion static test in 2014. She subsequently became Special Advisor to the CEO of the Saudi Space Agency, where she helped design Saudi Arabia’s national space strategy, built and led the Kingdom’s Human Space Flight Program, and played a central role in the Axiom Mission 2 that sent the first Saudi astronauts to the International Space Station. Today she serves as Managing Director of the Center for Space Futures in Riyadh — a WEF-affiliated body advancing global space governance and sustainable space investment — and as VP for Diversity Initiatives at the International Astronautical Federation, a position she won against fourteen international candidates to become the first Saudi woman ever elected to the role.

As an science speaker, Mishaal Ashemimry brings a rare combination of hard technical authority, nation-building experience, and deeply personal storytelling to the stage. Her keynotes — delivered across the GCC and globally — inspire leaders, innovators, and young professionals to think bigger about what is possible, while giving senior audiences a grounded, strategic perspective on the space economy, Vision 2030, and the future of STEM. Honored by King Salman for Scientific Achievement and named Inspirational Woman of the Year by the Arab Woman Awards, she is one of the most electrifying speakers working at the frontier of aerospace, innovation, and human potential.