NASA chooses Raja Chari for Space Station mission, to be the third Indian American in space
First Published Dec 15, 2020, 3:10 PM IST
US Space agency NASA and the European Space Agency have selected three astronauts -- Indian American Raja Jon Vurputoor Chari, Tom Marshburn and Matthias Maurer -- to serve as crew members for NASA's SpaceX Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station around September 2021

Raja Chari will serve as commander of the mission while Tom Marshburn will be the pilot and ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer will serve as mission specialist. NASA said a fourth crew member will be added at a later date.
In a statement, NASA announced: 'This will be the first spaceflight for Chari, who became a NASA astronaut in 2017. He was born in Milwaukee, but considers Cedar Falls, Iowa, his hometown.'
He (Raja Chari) is a colonel in the U.S Air Force and joins the mission with extensive experience as a test pilot. He has accumulated more than 2,500 hours of flight time in his career.

Chari will be the third Indian-American in space after NASA astronaut Sunita Williams (1998) and Kalpana Chawla, who died in 2003 in the space shuttle Columbia disaster.
Speaking about his interest in flying, Chari had earlier said that while an interest in flying first attracted him to the U.S. Air Force Academy, it's been that feeling of camaraderie and shared purpose that has stood out to him most throughout his career.
"My dad was an immigrant who came from India and had to start a new life here, and as I had gotten older and understood the opportunities he had been given, I felt I had an obligation to serve to give someone else those same future opportunities,"
he said.