Raja Chari News

Sebastian Voltmer, an astrophotographer, was able to get a picture of the spacewalk action from the ground. Maurer is visible in the International Space Station image. Voltmer utilised a Celestron 11-inch EdgeHD telescope on a GM2000 HPS mount with an ASI290 planetary camera.

SpaceX has sent four astronauts to the International Space Station. 44-year-old Indian American Raja Chari has been made mission commander. He is a trained pilot of a US Air Force fighter jet.

Indian-American US Air Force Colonel Raja Chari has been selected as the Commander of the SpaceX Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) by NASA. This will be the third crew rotation mission of SpaceX's human space transportation system and its fourth flight with astronauts. The goal of the programme is to provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective crew access to the space station and low-Earth orbit in partnership with the American aerospace industry.

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.

The 12 new astronaut candidates - seven men and five women - were chosen from more than 18,300 people who submitted applications from December 2015 to February 2016.