Meet Raja Chari, the Indian-American astronaut who will command SpaceX’s Crew-3 mission?

Team Udayavani, Dec 18, 2020, 4:03 PM IST

Indian-American astronaut Raja Chari has been selected by NASA alongside two other astronauts to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) on SpaceX Crew-3 mission in 2021

He has been selected as the Commander of the SpaceX Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) by NASA and the European Space Agency. It will be the first spaceflight for Chari and Matthias Maurer, and the third for NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn. Raja Chari is the only Indian-American among 18 astronauts selected for NASA’s Moon mission.

Raja Chari graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1999 with bachelor’s degrees in Astronautical Engineering and Engineering Science.

He continued on to earn a master’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. He has accumulated more than 2,500 hours of flight time in his career.

The Indian-American will command the mission, while Tom Marshburn will serve as pilot and Matthias Maurer as a mission specialist.

He was earlier was selected earlier this month as a member of the Artemis Team and is now eligible for assignment to a future lunar mission