Raja Chari, Indian-origin astronaut, among 12 new members selected by NASA – Know more about him

New Delhi: On June 7, 2017, the US space agency NASA finally introduced its newest class of 2017 astronaut candidates comprising 12 members - seven men and five women - including an Indian-American, during an event at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Raja Chari, a Lieutenant Colonel with the US Air Force, may become the third person of Indian origin from the US after the late Kalpana Chawla and current NASA astronaut Sunita Williams to fly to space, if all goes well. He will report for duty in August this year.

Here are some important things to know about astronaut candidate Raja Chari:

• Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Raja Chari was raised in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Chari's father Srinivas Chari was an engineer and he immigrated to the US after his engineering from Osmania University in Hyderabad. His mother Peggy Chari lives in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
• Raja astronautical engineering and engineering science. He later earned a Master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduated from the US Naval Test Pilot School.
• The Iowa native is married to Holly Schaffter Chari, also a Cedar Falls native, and the couple have three children.
• Chari is a commander of the 461st Flight Test Squadron and director of the F-35 Integrated Test Force at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
• He has accumulated more than 2,000 hours of flight time in F-35, F-15, F-16, and F-18, including F-15E combat missions in 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' and deployments in support of the Korean peninsula.
• Chari has been awarded the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Aerial Achievement Medal, the Air Force Commendation Medal, the Air Force Achievement Medal, an Iraq Campaign Medal, a Korean Defense Service Medal and the Nuclear Deterrence Operations Service Medal, among other citations.

After a two-year training like other candidates, Chari will be assigned technical duties in the NASA Astronaut Office till he gets a flight assignment.

With the addition of these 12 members, NASA now has selected 350 astronauts since the original Mercury 7 in 1959.

The 12 new candidates include six military officers, three scientists, two medical doctors, a lead engineer at SpaceX and a NASA research pilot.