Raja Chari Becomes 1st Indian Origin Man Among 18 Astronauts Chosen For NASA's Moon Mission

Raja Jon Vurputoor Chari, an Indian-American US Air Force colonel, is among 18 astronauts, half of them women, who have been selected by NASA for its ambitious manned mission to the Moon and beyond.

The list for the Artemis moon mission was announced by US vice president Mike Pence at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Wednesday. Artemis, in Greek mythology, is the goddess associated with the moon, and with hunting. She was the twin sister to Apollo, the sun god.

NASA

First Indian-origin male astronaut in NASA

Chari is the third Indian origin astronaut in NASA, and incidentally, the first male. The other two were women¡ªKalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams. Williams is now part of NASA-Boeing's commercial crew program and is expected to fly the first Starliner mission flight next summer. Chawla died, along with the six other crew members, in 2003 when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas on its re-entry into the earth's atmosphere.

Chari was among 11 new NASA graduates who successfully completed their over two years' of basic astronaut training in January 2020. The successful astronauts were selected among 18,000 applicants in 2017 after NASA announced its Artemis programme.

NASA

Was also test pilot in US Air Force colonel

Chari, 41, was selected by NASA to join the 2017 Astronaut Candidate Class when he was a test pilot in the US Air Force. He reported for duty in August 2017 and having completed the initial astronaut candidate training is now eligible for a mission assignment.

Born in Milwaukee, Chari was raised in Iowa and traces his roots to Hyderabad. His father, Srinivas Chari, an engineering graduate from Osmania University, moved to the US in the 1950s and ended up settling there.

???? Pilot with 2,000 hours of flight time
?? @USAirForce officer
??? NASA Astronaut

Meet @Astro_Raja, an initial member of our @NASAArtemis team who will help pave the way for the next human missions on and around the Moon. pic.twitter.com/bc6ctjUL5H

¡ª NASA Aeronautics (@NASAaero) December 10, 2020

Chari has a masters degree in aeronautics and astronautics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and had moved on in his military career to become a test pilot. He has accumulated more than 2,000 hours of flight time in the F-35, F-15, F-16, and F-18 including F-15E combat missions in Operation Iraqi Freedom and deployments in support of the Korean peninsula.

First woman, next man on moon by 2024

For NASA, Artemis is a mission for ¡°humanity's return to the moon¡±. It will comprise of several missions to put men and women on the lunar surface, the first human presence there after the 1970s. The plan is to put the first woman and next man on the moon by 2024, and over the next decade, to build a sustainable human presence there. The moon mission is a step towards the greater ambition of sending humans to the Mars and other destinations in the future.

Twitter

It really is amazing to think that the next man and the first woman on the Moon are among the names that we just read... We started today reflecting on a great hero of the past. The Artemis Generation are the heroes of American space exploration in the future, Pence said after he introduced the members of the Artemis Team during the eighth National Space Council meeting.

The astronauts on the Artemis Team come from a diverse range of backgrounds, expertise and experience. Most of the astronauts in the group are in their 30s or 40s. The oldest is 55, the youngest 32.

NASA will announce flight assignments for astronauts later, pulling from the Artemis Team. Additional Artemis Team members, including international partner astronauts, will join this group, as needed. The other members on the list include Christina Koch and Jessica Meir - the two astronauts who performed the world's first all-female spacewalk last year.