IITian Sanjeev Sharma worked with Indian Railways for 11 years, is now SpaceX's principal engineer

Sanjeev Sharma, principal engineer for Starship Dynamics at SpaceX. (Image credit: LinkedIn)

After SpaceX's historic achievement of "catching" the Starship rocket's super heavy booster by the launch tower, the spotlight has shifted to one of the company's senior engineers with an Indian connection. The LinkedIn profile of Sanjeev Sharma, who has been working with the Elon Musk-owned company for more than two years as its principal engineer, is viral on social media. It revealed that the IIT alumnus had worked with the Indian Railways for 11 years before moving to the US.

The IIT Roorkee graduate was employed by the Railways from 1990 to 2001 as a divisional mechanical manager and then deputy chief mechanical engineer. He then quit to move to the US and complete two master's degrees in mechanical engineering and management of technology.

After working with a California-based tech company for 9.5 years, Sharma joined SpaceX in 2013 as a dynamics engineer where he worked on the "recovery and reuse ability of the first-stage booster". Six years later, he quit only to return in 2022 as its principal engineer.

Currently, screenshots of his LinkedIn profile are doing rounds on social media with users calling his journey and accomplishments "nothing short of stellar".

Sanjiv Sharma, Principal Engineer to #Starship#SpaceX has roots in #IndianRailways

Related Stories

• Delhi fog disrupts train services: Vande Bharat among dozens of trains delayed by hours; see full li...
• SpaceX’s record IPO plan pushes obscure fund into spotlight
• Indian Railways' first hydrogen train ready for trials in major step toward green rail technology

Mech Engineer#Railways (90- 01)Migrated to #UCBoulder for MSNow launching rockets to #Mars@SpaceXpic.twitter.com/kv8loe2Aqk Ayoosh (@ayooshveda) October 15, 2024

Sharma has also been instrumental in SpaceX creating a fully reusable rocket system, key to future space missions.

This successful recovery of the heavy booster is a significant step for the company as it works towards supporting NASA’s plans to return astronauts to the moon. The fully reusable Starship rocket, central to these missions, demonstrated flawless execution during this crucial test.