Kalpana Chawla and Sunitha Williams who made India proud across borders.Now a 39-year-old techie has become the next Indian-American to have been selected for a prestigious NASA programme.After screening a record 18,000 applications, the NASA has finally picked 12 astronaut candidates — its largest astronaut class since 2000 — and Indian-American Raja Chari, a Lieutenant Colonel with the US Air Force, has bagged a most sought-after seat.
Chari, who will report for duty in August this year, graduated from the US Air Force Academy in 1999 with bachelor’s degrees in astronautical engineering and engineering scienceThe group, the largest in almost two decades selected by NASA, will undergo a two-year training from this August. The 12 candidates include six military officers, three scientists, two medical doctors, a lead engineer at SpaceX and a NASA research pilot.
Chari 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.
"These are 12 men and women whose personal excellence and whose personal courage will carry our nation to even greater heights of discovery and who I know will inspire our children and our grandchildren every bit as much as your forebears have done so in this storied American programme,” said Pence.
