Indian-American Astronaut Raja Chari All Set For First Spaceflight, As Part Of NASA SpaceX Crew-3 Mission
Raja Chari will be the commander of the Crew Dragon spacecraft and the 4-member Crew-3 mission scheduled to launch on October 30
New Delhi: Indian-American astronaut Raja Chari is all set for his first spaceflight, with NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission preparing to take four astronauts to the International Space Station later this month.
Chari will be the commander of the Crew Dragon spacecraft and the Crew-3 mission, “responsible for all phases of flight, from launch to re-entry”, NASA said.
The other three astronauts accompanying Chari will be Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron and European Space Agency’s Matthias Maurer.
The mission aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch Saturday, October 30, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the space agency said.
NASA has called a press briefing on Wednesday to present an overview of the SpaceX Crew-3 mission and discuss the ISS crew rotation. A second briefing the same day will have all four astronauts answering media queries.
NASA said this will be the final opportunity for the media to speak to the crew before they fly to Florida to prepare for the launch.
Who Is Raja Chari?
Chari, who became a NASA astronaut in 2017, will serve as an Expedition 66 flight engineer aboard the International Space Station, according to NASA.
He was born in Milwaukee, to an Indian immigrant father and Iowa native mother, but was raised in Cedar Falls, Iowa, which he considers his hometown.
A colonel in the US Air Force, Chari has “extensive experience as a test pilot” — more than 2,500 hours of flight time in the F-35, F-15, F-16, and F-18, including F-15E combat missions in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was also deployed in support of the Korean peninsula.
29 days to launch headed to @Space_Station on Oct 30th w/ #Crew3 buddies @AstroMarshburn @astro_matthias & Kayla Barron. You know it’s getting real when your ITI (aka trainer/scheduler/@NASA_Astronauts manager extraordinaire) sends you your final schedule for @NASA_Johnson events pic.twitter.com/huqQ4GEV5R
— Raja Chari (@Astro_Raja) October 2, 2021
Chari holds a Master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He later went to the US Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Maryland, and the US Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Chari reported for NASA duty in August 2017. After completing two years of training as an astronaut candidate, he served as the director of the Joint Test Team for the NASA Commercial Crew Program.
In 2020, Chari was selected for NASA’s initial 18-member team of astronauts as part of the Artemis Lunar Exploration Programme that aims to help pave the way for the next lunar missions.
NASA hopes to send the next man, and the first woman, on the moon by 2024 through its Artemis programme.
Introducing the members of the Artemis team last December at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, then US Vice-President Mike Pence had said: “I give you the heroes who will carry us to the moon and beyond – the Artemis Generation.”
Proud to be a small part of the huge @NASA team working to get humans to the moon to stay. We need explorers, engineers, and dreamers to get #Artemis there https://t.co/H3GaLjLe8K
— Raja Chari (@Astro_Raja) December 10, 2020
Raja Chari And His India Connection
Raja Chari's father Sreenivas Chari had gone to the US after graduation from Hyderabad’s Osmania University, and got his Master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Chari’s mother Peggy Chari is from Iowa.
In a NASA video posted in 2017, Chari can be heard talking about his early life. “If I ask my mom, she definitely has memories of me as a child talking about being an astronaut. I always knew I wanted to do something related to aviation,” he said.
In a later video posted by IANS TV in January 2020, Chari talked about his father and said how he grew up “acknowledging his sacrifices”. “One thing that he brought from India with him was education, which made me learn the importance of it as a young child. It is a privilege, and should not be taken for granted,” he said.
According to reports, some of Chari’s extended family members still live in Hyderabad.
He is married to Holly Schaffter Chari, who is also from Iowa. His brother Krishna Chari works as an engineer at Microsoft.
The NASA SpaceX Crew-3 Plan
Set to be launched on October 30, Crew-3 is scheduled to arrive at the space station early the next day after an around 22-hour journey. There will be a short overlap with the four astronauts who flew to the ISS as part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission.
The four astronauts part of Crew-2 are Shane Kimbrough, Megan McArthur, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and ESA’s Thomas Pesquet. They are likely to return by med-November, according to NASA.
The Crew-3 astronauts are scheduled to have a six-month science mission, working onboard the ISS as part of a seven-member crew.
Their return is due in late April 2022 with NASA targeting the crew handover with the launch of its SpaceX Crew-4 mission to the space station on April 15, 2022.
Crew-4 will be commanded by NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren. Bob Hines, another NASA astronaut, will be the pilot. Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA, as mission specialist, will command the Expedition 68 crew. The fourth crew member is yet to be named.
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