Sahba El-Shawa

Sahba El-Shawa is a Jordanian-Canadian interdisciplinary researcher and social entrepreneur originally from Palestine. She is the Founder of the Jordan Space Research Initiative, which aims to bridge sustainable development with space exploration and establish an analog research facility in Jordan, as well as the Palestine Space Institute, a think tank advancing the ethical use of space technologies and advocating for demilitarization, decolonization, and sustainability in global space governance. 

Sahba holds a BASc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of British Columbia, an MSc in Space Studies from the International Space University, and is now pursuing her PhD in Sustainable Development and Climate Change at IUSS Pavia in Italy. Her PhD research explores the use of emerging technologies such as Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence to improve accessibility to space-derived knowledge for sustainability applications and policymaking. 

During her studies, she collaborated with the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) on robotics research and completed an internship at the European Space Agency’s Clean Space initiative focusing on the environmental impacts of space activities, both on Earth and in space, as well as the ESA Φ-lab, where she developed an environmental feature clustering framework using Earth Observation and AI for impact assessment. 

Sahba is an active volunteer in the Space Generation Advisory Council, acting as National Point of Contact for Jordan, as well as Co-Lead of the Ethics & Human Rights project group and the Space for Climate Action policy working group. She is also a National Coordinator in the Moon Village Association and its Participation of Emerging Space Countries program. 

An award-winning researcher,  Sahba is the first Jordanian and the first female Palestinian analog astronaut. She was the recipient of the Women in Aerospace Young Professional Award in 2021, the Space Generation Leadership Award in 2022, and was selected as an Alternate Astronaut for Space for Humanity in 2022. She is passionate about outreach and education, and has organized space design competitions for students around the world including Canada, Europe, and the Middle East. 

Guided by a vision of space exploration rooted in justice, sustainability, and collective responsibility, Sahba is committed to reshaping how space technologies are developed and applied. Her work bridges technical innovation with critical policy and ethical frameworks, striving for a future where space serves the needs of people and the planet.