Natacha Chough (M.D. 2010) spent her childhood looking at the sky. There was something so inviting, so challenging about the immensity of space — and our place within it. She decided early on that she wanted to work at NASA.
During an undergraduate internship at NASA in 2000, Chough learned about aerospace medicine, a specialty developed for the unique needs of air and space travel. The field combines two of her greatest loves: space and life sciences. “It was like a dream come true,” she says. As simple as that, her disparate ambitions fused into one career.
Now, as a Flight Surgeon at NASA, Chough is living that dream. Most recently, she provided ground medical support and telemedical care of Kate Rubins, Ph.D., the 60th woman to fly in space.