Sarah Gillis, the aerospace engineer and commercial astronaut who became the youngest person to complete a spacewalk during the September 2024 Polaris Dawn mission, carries an estimated net worth of $1 million to $2 million in 2026, built primarily through a decade-long career at SpaceX and her current role as Senior Advisor to the Administrator at NASA.
- Sarah Gillis Career and Personal Facts
- From Classical Violin to Aerospace Engineering
- How SpaceX Built the Foundation of Sarah Gillis's Career
- Polaris Dawn: The Mission That Defined Her Public Profile
- Sarah Gillis's Role at NASA After SpaceX
- How Sarah Gillis Net Worth Estimates Are Calculated
- Sarah Gillis Net Worth Breakdown
- Where Sarah Gillis Stands Among Commercial Astronauts
- Sarah Gillis Personal Life and Background
- What Sarah Gillis's Career Trajectory Says About Her 2026 Net Worth
- Sources
- Frequently Asked Questions
Sarah Gillis Career and Personal Facts
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Sarah Levine “Cooper” Gillis |
| Known As | Sarah Gillis |
| Date of Birth | January 1, 1994 |
| Age (2026) | 32 |
| Birthplace | Palo Alto, California, USA |
| Hometown | Boulder, Colorado, USA |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | BS Aerospace Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder (2017) |
| High School | Shining Mountain Waldorf School |
| Profession | Aerospace Engineer, Commercial Astronaut, NASA Senior Advisor |
| Years Active | 2015 to present |
| Famous For | Polaris Dawn mission; youngest person to perform a spacewalk; first commercial EVA |
| Spaceflight | Polaris Dawn (September 2024); 4 days, 22 hours, 13 minutes in space |
| Spacewalk Time | 7 minutes, 15 seconds (1 EVA) |
| Estimated Net Worth | $1 million to $2 million (2026 estimate) |
| Main Income Sources | SpaceX engineering salary, NASA advisory role, public speaking |
From Classical Violin to Aerospace Engineering
Sarah Gillis grew up in Boulder, Colorado, in an artistic household. Her mother, a professional violinist, raised her to play classical violin from a young age. That path changed during a high school lecture at CU Boulder, where she met former NASA astronaut and professor Joe Tanner.
Tanner became her mentor and pointed her toward aerospace engineering. She graduated from Shining Mountain Waldorf School in 2012, then enrolled at the University of Colorado Boulder. In 2017, she earned a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering Sciences, studying both engineering and dance during her time there.
Before joining SpaceX full-time, she also interned at Sierra Nevada Corporation in 2014 and worked as a barista at The Laughing Goat coffee shop in Boulder. Those early jobs are a long way from where she ended up.
How SpaceX Built the Foundation of Sarah Gillis’s Career
Gillis started at SpaceX as a crew operations intern in January 2015, working on human-in-the-loop testing of the Dragon spacecraft interior. After graduating in 2017, she joined the company full-time as a Space Operations Engineer, spending over a decade helping shape how SpaceX trains humans for space.
Her responsibilities grew steadily. She prepared NASA astronauts for the historic Demo-2 mission, the first crewed test flight of the Crew Dragon, and for the Crew-1 mission that followed. She also directly trained the Inspiration4 crew, the first all-civilian group to reach orbit. In total, she has trained more than 60 astronauts.
As a mission control operator, she supported Dragon cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station as a Navigation Officer. For crewed missions, she served as Crew Operations and Resources Engineer (CORE), the SpaceX equivalent of NASA’s CAPCOM role, the person who speaks directly to astronauts in orbit.
By November 2020, she had risen to Lead Space Operations Engineer. That role put her in charge of developing mission-specific training curricula for both NASA and commercial crews flying on the Dragon spacecraft.
Polaris Dawn: The Mission That Defined Her Public Profile
On September 10, 2024, Gillis launched aboard the Dragon spacecraft from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center as Mission Specialist on Polaris Dawn. The mission, led by Shift4 CEO Jared Isaacman and funded through the private Polaris program, flew farther into Earth’s orbit than any crewed mission since Apollo.
On September 12, 2024, she and Isaacman completed the first-ever commercial spacewalk, stepping outside the Dragon in SpaceX-designed EVA suits. At 30 years old, she became the youngest person in history to perform a spacewalk. Alongside crew member Anna Menon, she also set the record for the farthest distance any woman has traveled from Earth.
The mission lasted 4 days, 22 hours, and 13 minutes. The crew conducted nearly 40 scientific experiments and tested Starlink laser-based communications in space for the first time. Gillis also played violin from orbit, a nod to her childhood musical training.
Sarah Gillis’s Role at NASA After SpaceX
After her years at SpaceX, Gillis moved to NASA, where she now serves as Senior Advisor to the Administrator. Gillis has not made the specific scope or compensation of that role public, but the position sits at one of the most prominent levels in American human spaceflight policy.
She has also spoken at major industry events, including the Space Symposium in April 2026. Professional speakers with her level of public profile and specialized expertise typically command speaking fees ranging from tens of thousands of dollars per engagement, though Gillis has not confirmed any specific figures publicly.
How Sarah Gillis Net Worth Estimates Are Calculated
Unlike entertainers or executives with public contracts, Sarah Gillis’s financial profile comes entirely from private engineering salaries and advisory compensation. No audited figure or personal disclosure exists. Public estimates draw on publicly available salary data for comparable SpaceX roles and general federal advisory benchmarks.
Industry salary trackers put senior aerospace engineers at SpaceX in roughly the $130,000 to $160,000 base salary band in 2025 and 2026, with lead and senior operations roles at the higher end of that range. Over her roughly ten years at SpaceX, her cumulative engineering income likely represents the largest single contributor to her current wealth.
Public speaking income is a growing but unconfirmed factor. Engineers and astronauts with Gillis’s profile are increasingly sought-after on the conference circuit, particularly in aerospace and STEM sectors. The Polaris Dawn mission significantly raised her public profile, which likely increases future speaking demand.
Because she holds a salaried role rather than equity stakes, stock options, or royalty income, her wealth does not scale with SpaceX’s private valuation. The $1 million to $2 million estimate reflects accumulated career savings, standard compensation for her roles, and estimated speaking income, not any speculative share of SpaceX equity.
Sarah Gillis Net Worth Breakdown
| Income Source | Estimated Role in Net Worth | Context |
|---|---|---|
| SpaceX Engineering Salary (2015-2024) | Major contributor | Approximately 7 to 8 years full-time (2017 to 2024); internship from 2015; senior engineering compensation range $130K-$160K annually |
| NASA Senior Advisor Role | Moderate contributor | Current role; federal advisory compensation details not public |
| Public Speaking Engagements | Possible contributor | Conference circuit post-Polaris Dawn; no confirmed figures |
| Private Investments and Assets | Public details limited | No public record of significant personal investments |
Where Sarah Gillis Stands Among Commercial Astronauts
Most commercial astronauts who have flown on SpaceX missions fall into two distinct financial categories. Some, like Jared Isaacman, are billionaire mission sponsors. Others, like Gillis and Anna Menon, are professional engineers whose compensation reflects salaried aerospace careers rather than personal wealth.
In that context, a net worth estimate of $1 million to $2 million places Gillis comfortably within the range of a successful mid-career engineer in the aerospace sector, not among the ultra-wealthy, but well above the median. Her public profile after Polaris Dawn gives her earning potential in speaking and advisory roles that most peers in her field simply do not have. That distinction is worth noting when thinking about where her finances may move in the years ahead.
Sarah Gillis Personal Life and Background
Gillis uses “Cooper” as a middle name professionally. She grew up in a creative household shaped by her mother’s classical music career. That background in violin stayed with her, literally: she performed violin during the Polaris Dawn mission, making her one of the few people to play a musical instrument from orbit.
She has two sisters. Public information on her current relationship status and personal life beyond her career is limited, and she has kept those details private. Publicly, she has focused her profile on aerospace and human spaceflight rather than personal celebrity.
The University of Colorado Boulder recognized her with an Outstanding Alumni award for Excellence in Commercial Enterprise in the Under 40 category, a reflection of her career trajectory since graduating in 2017.
What Sarah Gillis’s Career Trajectory Says About Her 2026 Net Worth
The honest picture of Sarah Gillis net worth in 2026 is one shaped by a serious engineering career rather than celebrity wealth. She spent a decade doing technical work that few people in the world are qualified to do: training astronauts, operating mission control, and eventually flying to space herself.
Her financial profile reflects that path. The numbers are modest relative to the fame Polaris Dawn brought her, but they are consistent with what a highly skilled aerospace engineer with growing advisory and speaking demand would realistically accumulate by age 32. With her current NASA role and a rising public profile, her earning trajectory points clearly upward. For an engineer who trained over 60 astronauts and flew to space by age 30, the financial trajectory at 32 still has considerable room to grow.
Sources
- Wikipedia — Sarah Gillis
- Polaris Program — Official Mission Specialist Bio
- CU Boulder Aerospace — Sarah Gillis (AeroEngr BS’17)
- CU Boulder Engineering — Life in Space from a CU Boulder Alumna
- PBS NewsHour — Polaris Dawn Crew Returns After First Private Spacewalk
- The Debrief — How Polaris Dawn Made History
- Zero G Talent — Senior Aerospace Engineer Salary 2026 (SpaceX salary context)
Editorial Note: All net worth figures in this article are public estimates based on career records, industry salary data, and available public information. Sarah Gillis has not publicly disclosed her personal finances. These figures should not be treated as confirmed or audited amounts. Estimates may change as new public information becomes available.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Sarah Gillis’s net worth in 2026?
Public estimates place Sarah Gillis’s net worth at roughly $1 million to $2 million in 2026. The estimate reflects her decade-long engineering career at SpaceX, her current senior advisory role at NASA, and growing public speaking activity after the Polaris Dawn mission. No confirmed or disclosed figure exists.
What did Sarah Gillis do on the Polaris Dawn mission?
Gillis flew as a Mission Specialist on Polaris Dawn in September 2024. She and mission commander Jared Isaacman completed the first-ever commercial spacewalk on September 12, 2024, lasting about 7 minutes and 15 seconds. The mission flew farther from Earth than any crewed spaceflight since Apollo, and Gillis became the youngest person in history to perform a spacewalk at age 30.
Where does Sarah Gillis work now?
After spending over ten years at SpaceX, Gillis now serves as Senior Advisor to the Administrator at NASA. She previously held the title of Lead and Senior Space Operations Engineer at SpaceX, where she oversaw astronaut training for the Dragon spacecraft program.
Where did Sarah Gillis go to school?
Gillis attended Shining Mountain Waldorf School in Boulder, Colorado, graduating in 2012. She then studied at the University of Colorado Boulder, earning a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering Sciences in 2017. She also studied dance alongside engineering during her undergraduate years.
Is Sarah Gillis related to Shane Gillis?
No confirmed family connection exists between Sarah Gillis and Shane Gillis, the stand-up comedian known for his work on Saturday Night Live and his Netflix comedy specials. They share a last name but public records do not indicate any relationship. Shane Gillis is from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, while Sarah Gillis grew up in Boulder, Colorado.
What records did Sarah Gillis set in space?
During Polaris Dawn, Gillis became the youngest person ever to perform a spacewalk. Alongside crew member Anna Menon, she also set the record for the farthest distance any woman has traveled from Earth. The Polaris Dawn mission flew higher than any crewed Dragon flight before it, reaching altitudes beyond those of the International Space Station.
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