Vanderbilt cardiologist Dr. Eiman Jahangir became the first Nashvillian to go to space on an 11-minute suborbital flight Thursday morning with Blue Origin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' private space exploration company.

"It was immense," Jahangir said in an interview after the flight. "It makes me realize how small the Earth is and how fortunate we are to have this planet, because we don't know of any other planet like this."

Jahangir shared the moment with his parents, his wife and their two small children and his brother, fellow Vanderbilt physician and former Nashville COVID czar Dr. Alex Jahangir, all of whom made the trip to West Texas. (Eiman Jahangir carried a picture of him and his brother as young boys in their native Iran on the flight as a symbol of how far they and their family has come since then.)

Jahangir, 44, who fulfilled a lifelong dream for space flight with this adventure, shared his thoughts and feelings with The Tennessean about five hours after landing.

Tennessean: What was it like when you got into space?

Jahangir: You see the horizon and the shimmers coming at you. You see the blackness of the sky. And as the capsule rotates, I mean, I got blasted with the sun and this is the sun without atmosphere. So all of a sudden I'm feeling the radiation. I had to close my eyes.

It was immense. It was a weird thing to look at the sky and to look above that, that's it's just black. But it is. And to me, it makes me realize how small the Earth is and how fortunate we are to have this planet, because we don't know of any other planet like this.

There is no doubt you're in space when you're up there. You can see the Earth kind of tipping. It was pretty incredible.

How was no gravity?

Jahangir: You get about three minutes of weightlessness, and yes, it's too short. But we get what we can get. All of a sudden, you get the capsule detaching, and you get the light saying you can take off your harness.

As soon as you loosen it, you start floating. You unbuckle and you just come out of your seat. It's an incredible feeling. It's effortless to do anything.

Before I went back in my seat, I did a plank-type maneuver, and I think I used zero muscles, no abdominal effort at all. It was pretty incredible. And I did go upside down.

When you emerged from the capsule after the flight, you made a low-key gesture of putting your fingers to your lips and blowing a kiss. That seemed to indicate gratitude.

Jahangir: I think that's exactly what it is, Brad. The whole experience for me has been about gratitude. I feel very grateful to have had this opportunity. Gratitude that I landed safely, that my wife was there, that I have a family I love, all of it. If we don't have gratitude, I don't know what the point is. It was a very heartfelt experience.

Your wife gave you a big hug and laughed when she first saw you afterward. How else did your family react?

Jahangir: My [9-year-old] son, who a week ago told me he would never ride on a rocket, that I was crazy, today after seeing it, said, "That looks cool. I want to do that."

Of the hundreds of text messages and emails you got today, which stood out most?

Jahangir: I got an email from a woman who was my manager at the GAP in 1997 in Cool Springs mall. And she remembers me wanting to be a cardiologist when I was 16 years old. And so I fulfilled that, and she said she was super proud of me. It was incredible.

Reach Brad Schmitt at brad@tennessean.com or at 615-259-8384. Read the article at Tennessean.com.

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