IOWA: An Indian-American aeronautics engineering graduate from MIT has been selected by NASA to join the 2017 Astronaut Candidate Class. Raja Chari, 39, is among 12 new astronauts chosen by NASA on June 7 from its biggest pool of applicants ever. The Astronaut Class of 2017 includes doctors, scientists, engineers, pilots, and military officers from Anchorage to Miami and points in between. The selected members have worked in submarines, emergency rooms, university lecture halls, jet cockpits, and battleships, and range in age from 29 to 42.
NASA's acting administrator Robert Lightfoot said, “It makes me personally feel very inadequate when you read what these folks have done.” Lt Col Raja Chari is a commander of the 461st Flight Test Squadron and the director of the F-35 Integrated Test Force at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Born in Milwaukee and raised in Cedar Falls, Iowa, he graduated from the US Air Force Academy in 1999 with bachelor's degree in Astronautical Engineering and Engineering Science.
At the time of his selection, he had accumulated over 2,000 hours of flight time in the F-35, F-15, F-16, F-18, including F-15E combat missions in Operation Iraqi Freedom and deployments in support of the Korean peninsula. He is scheduled to report for duty in August this year to begin two years of training as an astronaut candidate, and will be assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office while he awaits a flight assignment, on completion.
After training, the new candidates may ride commercial rockets to the International Space Station or flying beyond the moon in NASA's Orion spacecraft. Their ultimate destination could be Mars. The other chosen astronauts apart from Chari are, Navy Lt Kayla Barron, Zena Cardman, Navy Lt Cmdr. Matthew Dominick, Bob Hines, Warren “Moody” Hoburg, Dr Jonny Kim, Robb Kulin, Marine Maj Jasmin Moghbeli, Loral O'Hara, Dr Francisco “Frank” Rubio and Jessica Watkins.
US Vice President Mike Pence welcomed the group during a televised ceremony at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. He offered President Donald Trump's wishes and said that he was “firmly committed to NASA's noble mission, leading America in space.” Pence assured that NASA will have all resources and supports necessary to continue to make history and said he would lead a resurrected National Space Council to help set the direction of the program.
