Kochi: ‘Helping dragons fly’, this is what De Paul Sunny’s X account bio says. This Malayali helped to launch a ‘dragon’ into space yesterday. The Dragon will land on the International Space Station on Saturday morning. 

36-year-old De Paul Sunny, a native of Kochi, is a senior mission integration engineer at SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space venture. He is also the mission manager for Space X’s Dragon spacecraft, which carries people and supplies into space.

De Paul was the Indian touch on the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon spacecraft that launched from the Space Launch Complex in Florida at 4:55 PM on Thursday. It carries scientific and maintenance equipment for the International Space Station, fruit and vegetables, food and coffee kits for the crew.

DePaul, the eldest son of Sunny Diamonds owner P.P Sunny and Tina, has been working for SpaceX for two and a half years. After completing his undergraduate course in Aeronautics, Aviation safety and Applied Metrology at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, USA, he joined Jet Blue as an Air Safety Investigator in 2011. Meanwhile, he continued his passion for space technology and finally landed a job in SpaceX. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Rayna Derry.