Beth Moses
BS aeronautical and astronautical Engineering ’92
MS aeronautics and astronautics ’94
Born: 1969
Missions: Virgin Galactic Unity VF-01, Unity 22, Unity 25, Galactic 02, Galactic 03, Galactic 04
Beth Moses made history in 2019 with Virgin Galactic, becoming the first female commercial astronaut. During her test flight on SpaceShipTwo, she became the first human ever to unbuckle and float around during a suborbital spaceflight.
Moses is Virgin Galactic’s chief astronaut instructor and cabin test lead, responsible for making its commercial spaceflight program a safe and enjoyable experience. She previously worked at NASA’s Johnson Space Center as extravehicular activity system manager.
She made history again in 2021, joining fellow Purdue alumna Sirisha Bandla and Sir Richard Branson aboard Unity 22 for the first-ever fully crewed commercial spaceflight. Moses flew again in 2023 as a crew member on Unity 25, Virgin’s first test flight after a two-year hiatus.
As a Purdue student, Moses won the National Science Foundation’s Microgravity Research Award to conduct materials research in parabolic flight.
