Indian-origin Raja Chari leads NASA-SpaceX mission to space station

The SpaceX capsule carrying Raja Chari and three other astronauts docked with the International Space Station on Thursday.

Raja Chari, an astronaut with Indian roots, is leading the NASA mission to the International Space Station in a SpaceX capsule.

The capsule carrying Chari and three other astronauts docked with the International Space Station on Thursday, kicking off a six-month stay on the orbiting outpost.

 Raja Chari, Kayla Barron and Tom Marshburn of the United States and Matthias Maurer of Germany, part of the mission called “Crew-3”, traveled to space aboard a Crew Dragon capsule fixed to a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Chari, a US Air Force colonel and the mission, is making his first trip to space, along with Barron and Maurer.
The 44-year-old was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Srinivas Chari and Peggy Egbert. He was raised in Iowa. He is married to Holly Schaffter Chari. The couple has three children.
He is also among the 18 astronauts selected for NASA's 2024 manned mission to the moon.

A US Air Force Academy graduate in Astronautical Engineering and Engineering Science, Chari was selected by NASA to join the 2017 Astronaut Candidate Class. He earned a master’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduated from the US Naval Test Pilot School.

SpaceX, the California-based company formed in 2002 by billionaire Elon Musk, founder of electric car maker Tesla Inc, has logged a total of 15 human spaceflights in 17 months, including its astro-tourism launch in September of the first all-civilian crew sent to Earth orbit without professional astronauts.

(With inputs from AFP and Reuters)