Apurva Varia

Keith’s note: Apurva Varia, Mission Operations Director for Parker Solar Probe and Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), and Deputy Mission Operations Director Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) at NASA GSFC has died suddenly. I never met him but I often heard glowing, kind words about him – and I was supposed to look him up the next time I was at GSFC and have a chat in ASL with him. The following is from a friend of mine, Eric Shear, who posted this on Facebook: “It is with a heavy heart that I share the news that Apurva Varia passed away on April 24th after a massive stroke. He was visiting his children at Duke University. Besides his work as a director of three interplanetary missions at NASA Goddard, Apurva and I flew together as the only two deaf flyers on AstroAccess Flight 1 in 2021. Until then, I had not met any other deaf people who shared my dream of becoming an astronaut. He not only was serious about it, he had already attained much of the necessary background. During our brief time together, he taught me some of the things he learned working in an all-hearing environment at NASA, while I used my 2011 experience to prepare him for the thrill of weightlessness. I was struck by his calm nature, his patience and kindness with the hearing AstroAccess crew who did not sign as well as him, his facility with the media, and his deep knowledge of space systems. To remember him, here are several photos of him before and during Flight 1.” Ad Astra Apurva – Some videos below.