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Reimuller is breaking barriers, both for astronauts and for the LGBTQ+ community

Jason Reimuller (MAeroEngr’07, PhD’11) didn’t necessarily set out to be a groundbreaker.

He likes to say he “herds the cats and tells the stories,” but his activism is more than that. Reimuller is breaking barriers, both for astronauts and for the LGBTQ+ community.

“You grow a movement, and it grows organically. And then there’s so many people that come in and bring their own expertise and expand this in ways you never thought possible,” Reimuller said. “We’re addressing gaps that need to be addressed. The questions are being asked that were far too long ignored.”

Reimuller is the founder and executive director of the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS) and of Out Astronaut, a nonprofit organization intended to increase LGBTQ+ visibility within the aerospace industry, particularly spaceflight. 

Reimuller earned his PhD in aerospace engineering sciences at CU Boulder. He said the IIAS really grew from his dissertation research.

It started with clouds — noctilucent ones, to be precise. These high-altitude clouds can be seen on clear summer nights at high latitude. Reimuller’s advisor, Professor Emeritus Jeff Thayer, got him interested in the phenomena, which then led to Reimuller piloting a small instrumented plane in northern Alberta, Canada, to image the clouds at a high altitude.

 “It was a bit of an adventure, being in such remote places and in an unpressurized plane at 25,000 feet,” Reimuller said.

This research led to conference presentations, which then unfolded into discussions about encouraging citizen research that would leverage a new generation of suborbital space vehicles, thereby making spaceflight research more accessible to the general public.

“Over the years, I’ve led [the IIAS] to make sure we can eliminate barriers of access so that more people can become professionals in the industry and demand a seat at the table over what the future of space will look like,” Reimuller said.

This idea of removing obstacles is also one of the driving missions of Out Astronaut. As a gay man who was twice selected by NASA as a highly qualified astronaut candidate, Reimuller knows how important LGBTQ+ representation in the science community is.

There has never been an astronaut who has openly identified with the LGBTQ+ community at the time of their selection. But Reimuller wants young people to be able to look at astronauts, scientists, researchers and others in the STEM world and see themselves, no matter their gender or sexual identity.

“Our heroes can be STEM professionals, not just actors and entertainers,” he said. “I want them to see astronauts as someone who is the best version of themselves, someone they could aspire to become. That image is so important, because it shows someone that succeeds on their merit. They’re a truly global-minded person that puts world humanity above everything else. They are someone who assumes great risks because of the importance of what they set out to do.”