Aisha Bowe Secures Billion Dollar Government Contract

Aisha Bowe made it big in entrepreneurship months after it was announced that she would be the first Black woman to fly on a commercial flight to space with Blue Origin, which Jeff Bezos founded.

The former rocket scientist, who is the founder of three multimillion-dollar companies, recently won a billion-dollar government contract.

According to the Black News, Exacta Solutions has been given a new $947 million contract by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to “support NGA’s total lifecycle acquisition management, strategic financial management, and strategic business management activities.”

When it was revealed in 2022 that Bahamian-American Bowe would be making history with Bezos, she was preparing to become the sixth Black woman to cross the internationally recognized Karman line.

Bowe’s historic flight came decades after former NASA astronaut Mae Jemison made history by becoming the first Black woman in space in 1992.

Joan Higginbotham, Jessica Watkins, Stephanie Wilson, and Dr. Sian Proctor of SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission are the only other Black women to have flown into space.

Bowe was advised by a counselor to pursue cosmetology in high school, but she knew she wanted more. So she chose to study mathematics at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor before transferring to the University of Michigan, where she earned an undergraduate and master’s degree in aerospace engineering.

The Bahamian-American went on to work as a rocket scientist for NASA and as a State Department global speaker, inspiring many young people worldwide.

She was recognized as a serial entrepreneur on Inc.’s fifth annual Female Founders 100 list, which honors a group of 100 women whose innovations are improving the world. STEMBoard, her award-winning tech company, was named to the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing companies.

Bowe is also one of a small group of Black women who have raised more than a million dollars in funding. The aerospace engineer’s venture capital-backed LINGO, which is 57% female, teaches students how to code at home and is currently available on Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Bowe was named an honoree for Virginia Business Magazine’s inaugural Black Business Leaders Awards in January of this year.

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Quincy Thomas

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