Jameel Janjua looked to the skies as a young boy As a schoolboy with dreams of making it to space, Jameel Janjua’s possessions included a poster of a pioneering astronaut and an immaculate air cadet uniform. The path to the skies was far from guaranteed for a child growing up in a family who had emigrated across three countries before his enterprising parents settled in Canada.
After arriving in Canada, Jameel’s dad worked as a mechanical engineer, setting up his own business, while his mum worked in science information resources in the years when the universal internet, let alone a commercial spaceline, was the stuff of sci-fi. Jameel’s first spaceflight will be in the supersonic rocket ship VSS United ‘My parents arrived in Canada with very little, they had family in Calgary but they didn’t have much,’ Jameel says.