Indian American Scientist Raja Chari Just Got Selected For The Next NASA Mission
Chari is part of NASA's 22nd batch of recruits, who will undergo two years of training before being deployed on assignment.
NASA has just introduced its 12 newest astronauts to join the fold, one of whom is an Indian-American. The new members were chosen from a record number of 18,300 applicants, who will undergo two years of training on Earth before being sent into orbit.
Images courtesy: NASA
Lt Col Raja ¡°Grinder¡± Chari, is the commander of the 461st Flight Test Squadron, as well as the director of the F-35 Integrated Test Force, at Edwards Air Force Base in California. From Waterloo, Iowa, the 39-year-old earned his Master¡¯s degree in Astronautical Engineering and Engineering Science from the US Air Force Academy in 1999. He later earned a Master¡¯s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School.
Front row (L-R): Warren Hoburg, Bob Hines, Matthew Dominick, Raji Chari, Zena Cardman, Kayla Barron; Back row (L-R): Jessica Watkins, Frank Rubio, Loral O
Chari, whose father hails from India, is one of the seven men and five women comprising the 22nd class of astronaut trainees since 1959, making it one of the largest groups NASA has selected in close to two decades. Applicants had to meet stringent physical regulations, as well as certain educational and experience criteria, to qualify them to serve aboard the International Space Station and beyond. The candidates include six military officers, three scientists, two medical doctors, a lead engineer at SpaceX and a NASA research pilot.
Once the new team of astronauts have completed two years of training, they could be assigned to research missions on board the ISS, or even deployed on deep space exploration missions on NASA¡¯s Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System currently being developed.
