NASA Friday named Raja Chari and Jonny Kim to its team of 18 astronauts to train for its moon landing program.
According to Republic World, Chari is Indian American and graduated from both the US Air Force Academy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The native of Milwaukee is a father of three children. He joined the NASA Astronaut Candidate Class in 2017. NASA states in his bio that Chari served as an Air Force colonel as the Commander of the 461st Flight Test Squadron and the Director of the F-35 Integrated Test Force. He served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and in deployments in support of the Korean peninsula.
“Proud to be part of the team working to take humans to the moon to stay. And proud (& thankful for the upbringing) to be an Iowan.” he wrote on Twitter.
KTLA reports Kim hails from Los Angeles and is the son of Korean American immigrants. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of California at San Diego and a doctorate of medicine from Harvard Medical School.
LATEST STORIES
NASA selected him for its Astronaut Candidates Class in 2017. He is a US Navy Seal and has completed more than 100 combat missions, according to NASA.
In an interview with the space agency, he recalled the moment he received word he had been admitted into the NASA program.
“I was in the middle of grocery shopping at [a] store when I got the call,” he recalled of the day NASA notified him. “[My wife and I] were expecting the call, and it was just a very surreal moment. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it — but I think my heart was racing a hundred beats a second, and I tried not to lose my composure in the middle of the grocery store.”
AsAmNews has Asian America in its heart. We’re an all-volunteer effort of dedicated staff and interns. Check out our new Instagram account. Go to our Twitter feed and Facebook page for more content. Please consider interning, joining our staff, or submitting a story.
