Nicole Lee and Risha Das named 2026 Payload Pioneers
Graduate students Nicole Lee (HSL) and Risha Das (MIT Technology and Policy Program) have been named to Payload Space’s 2026 “Payload Pioneers” class, an annual recognition of 30 emerging leaders under age 30 shaping the space industry.
Now in its fourth year, the program received more than 100 nominations for 2026. Honorees were selected based on their contributions to innovation, promotion, and transformation across the space sector.
About the MIT winners:
Nicole Huimei Lee
Lee is researching tech that astronauts can wear on long-duration missions to exercise while they work, maximizing their jam-packed schedules while aboard the ISS. Specifically, she is working to integrate neuromuscular electrical stimulation into the outfits astronauts wear while working inside the space station.
“Now that the tech has given us an avenue to have this in a new portable and wearable fashion, we’re studying whether we can combat the space environment with a mix of using neuromuscular stimulation, and other exercise regimens, to activate muscular stimulation without requiring a higher metabolic cost,” she said.
In neuromuscular electrical stimulation, nodes are attached to a person’s body to deliver small electrical impulses to activate the muscles. Lee said it’s commonly used on Earth for physical therapy and injury rehab. The terrestrial benefit is part of the appeal for Lee.
“I love what I do for human spaceflight, and I also love that human spaceflight brings so many solutions back to Earth,” she said.
Lee’s prototype spacesuit is set to be tested aboard a parabolic flight in November as part of the Horizon Zero Gravity Fight program with MIT spinout Aurelia Institute.
Lee is also pursuing a dual master’s degree in MIT’s Technology and Policy Program alongside her doctoral studies, where her thesis examines the risk of a gap between the retirement of the International Space Station and commercial space stations, exploring policies to preserve U.S. LEO capabilities.
Risha Das
Ritisha (Risha) Das is working to ensure that as space becomes increasingly important to national security worldwide, its potential to foster peace and collaboration across borders is not overlooked.
“Aerospace is focused on a lot of really cool applications and innovations—figuring out how to get a lunar base on the Moon and getting to Mars…Those are all really interesting things to me,” she said. “But I think that we have an untapped sector of the aerospace economy right now, where we’re not really thinking about how we get incentivized—or invest in—humanitarian applications.”
Das is enrolled in MIT’s dual masters and doctorate program that covers technology and policy, as well as aeronautics and astronautics. Her master’s thesis develops new ways to measure the sustainability of large satellite constellations, but her secondary research focus seeks to answer another question: Could satellites do more to prevent and respond to conflict than the world currently asks of them?
“I want to create pathways and opportunities so people in my position can look at the industry and go, ‘There is a job that I do want to contribute to, and it’s in this world that’s not morally ambiguous,’” she said. “I want to create more options for us.”
Earlier this year, Das served as a primary author translating the inaugural “Satellites for Peace: An Idea Whose Time Has Come” conference’s outputs into an international recommendations document for stakeholders including the UN, the Norwegian Space Agency, and the Vatican. Das was the youngest invited participant at the landmark conference. In October, Das presented this work at the 77th International Astronautical Congress in Antalya, Türkiye.
While pursuing her degrees, Das is also working part-time as a satellite engineer at Airbus.
