Indian-American Raja Chari Selected For NASA's Manned Mission To Moon, Know More About The Astronaut

NASA on Wednesday named the 18 astronauts including Indian American Raja Chari who will train for its Artemis moon-landing programme.

Image: Twitter/ @Astro_Raja

Raja Jon Vurputoor Chari, an Indian-American US Air Force colonel, is among 18 astronauts selected by NASA for its manned mission to the Moon and beyond. The 18 astronauts, comprising of nine men and nine women, have been chosen for the mission under NASA's Artemis program. The modern lunar exploration programme will land the first woman and next man on the Moon in 2024 and establish a sustainable human lunar presence by the end of the decade, the American space agency said.

Who is Raja Chari?

Raja Jon Vurputoor Chari, 43, a graduate of the US Air Force Academy, MIT, and US Naval Test Pilot School, is the only Indian-American in the list. According to reports, Chari's father Sreenivas V Chari had immigrated to the US from Hyderabad. The Indian-American astronaut was raised in Iowa, a Midwestern US state, and served as a colonel in the US Air Force. Chari has a bachelor's degree in astronautical engineering and a master's in aeronautics and astronautics. Chari had reportedly joined the astronaut corps in 2017.

????‍✈️ 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 — NASA Aeronautics (@NASAaero) December 10, 2020

The 41-year-old was among 11 new Nasa graduates who successfully completed their basic astronaut training in over two years in January 2020 and is now eligible for a mission assignment Vice President Mike Pence introduced the astronauts Wednesday at the close of his final meeting as chairman of the National Space Council. The announcement was made at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, beneath one of only three remaining Saturn V moon rockets from the 1960s and 1970s Apollo program. The astronauts were selected among 18,000 applicants in 2017 after Nasa announced its Artemis programme. (With PTI inputs)