NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have selected the Indo-US Raja as the commander of the SpaceX Crew-3 mission at the International Space Station.
Raja Chari, 43, is a U.S. Air Force colonel. He will be the SpaceX Crew-3 mission commander, NASA’s Tom Marshburn pilot, and ESA rider Matthias Maurer. The mission is expected to take place next year.
NASA said in a statement on Monday that a fourth task force would be added to the mission after an investigation by NASA and its international partners.
.@NASA, @esa select three @SpaceX Crew-3 astronauts:
Commander, Raja Chari, @Astro_Raja
Pilot, Tom Marshburn, @AstroMarshburn
Mission Specialist, Matthias Maurer, @astro_matthias
With a 4th astronaut to be added, the crew is expected to launch Fall 2021…https://t.co/JYInDeXbi5 pic.twitter.com/DzB1WBO010— Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) December 14, 2020
“Excited and honoured to be training with @astro_matthias and @AstroMarshburn in prep for a trip to the @Space_Station,” Raja Chari said in a tweet.
He wrote on his Facebook page that he is proud to be working with Matthias Maurer and Thomas Henry Marshburn to prepare for a mission to the International Space Station on the SpaceX ship dragon.
Excited and honored to be training with @astro_matthias and @AstroMarshburn in prep for a trip to the @Space_Station https://t.co/cHnWTmDAG9
— Raja Chari (@Astro_Raja) December 14, 2020
For Raja Chari, this will be the first space shuttle, according to PTI. He became a NASA astronaut in 2017.
Chari was born in Milwaukee, but is believed to be a cedar waterfall in Iowa. He is a Colonel of the U.S. Air Force and has served in this capacity with extensive experience as a pilot.
In a statement, NASA said in a statement that it had collected more than 2,500 hours of flying time in Tsar’s career. He was selected as a member of the Artemis team earlier this month and is now eligible to take over next month’s mission.
Raja Tsar’s father, Srinivasa Tsar, left Hyderabad for the United States at an early age for his engineering degree.
When Chari, Marshburn and Maurer arrive at the Orbital Laboratory, they will be on an expeditionary team for a period of six months. The crew will have a bit of an affair with the Crew-2 astronauts, which are expected to be launched in the spring of 2021.
