Indian-American Raja Chari among 3 astronauts selected by NASA for SpaceX Crew-3 mission

DEC 16, 2020 WASHINGTON: 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 and the European Space Agency. Chari, 43, will serve as the commander while NASA's Tom Marshburn will be pilot and ESA's Matthias Maurer will serve as a mission specialist for the SpaceX Crew-3 mission to the ISS, which is expected to launched next year. A fourth crew member will be added at a later date, following a review by NASA and its international partners, NASA said in a statement on Monday. "Excited and honored to be training with @astro_matthias and @AstroMarshburn in prep for a trip to the @Space_Station," Chari said in a tweet on Monday. "Proud to be working and training with Matthias Maurer and Thomas Henry Marshburn in preparation for a mission to the International Space Station aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon," he posted on his Facebook page. This will be the first spaceflight for Chari, who became a NASA astronaut in 2017. He was born in Milwaukee, but considers Cedar Falls, Iowa, his hometown, NASA said. He is a colonel in the US Air Force and joins the mission with extensive experience as a test pilot. He has accumulated more than 2,500 hours of flight time in his career. Chari was selected earlier this month as a member of the Artemis...

Read More........→December 16, 2020

Indian-American among 18 astronauts selected for NASA's manned Moon mission

DEC 11, 2020 WASHINGTON: An Indian-American is among the 18 astronauts selected by NASA for its manned mission to the Moon and beyond. NASA on Wednesday named the 18 astronauts -- half of them women -- who will train for its Artemis moon-landing programme. Raja Jon Vurputoor Chari, 43, a graduate of the US Air Force Academy, MIT, and US Naval Test Pilot School, is the only Indian-American in the list. He was selected by NASA to join the 2017 Astronaut Candidate Class. He reported for duty in August 2017 and having completed the initial astronaut candidate training is now eligible for a mission assignment. "My fellow Americans, I give you the heroes of the future who will carry us back to the Moon and beyond: the Artemis Generation," Vice President Mike Pence said at NASA''s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Wednesday. "It really is amazing to think that the next man and the first woman on the Moon are among the names that we just read...We started today reflecting on a great hero of the past. The Artemis Generation are the heroes of American space exploration in the future," Pence said after he introduced the members of the Artemis Team during the eighth National Space Council meeting. The astronauts on the Artemis Team come from a diverse range of backgrounds, expertise and experience. Most of the astronauts in the group are in...

Read More........→December 16, 2020

Three-man US-Russian crew returns to Earth from ISS

An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts touched down on the Kazakhstan steppe on Thursday, completing a 196-day mission that began with the first launch under lockdown conditions.NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner landed around 150 kilometres (90 miles) southeast of the Kazakh city of Zhezkazgan at 0254 GMT, footage broadcast by the Russian space agency Roscosmos showed.A NASA commentator citing communications from crews on the ground at the landing site said that the Soyuz descent module had landed in a vertical position and that the crew were working on getting the trio out of the craft.The three-man crew had blasted off minus the unusual fanfare in April with around half the world's population living under national lockdowns imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus.The mission coincided with the arrival at the space station in May of the first astronauts to blast off from US soil for almost a decade.The mission carried out by tycoon Elon Musk's SpaceX company as part of NASA's commercial Commercial Crew Program has helped fuel talk of a new "space race" between a number of countries.Prior to returning from his third mission in space, former US Navy SEAL Cassidy, 50, tweeted a picture of blood samples that astronauts have to submit at various points in their mission,...

Read More........→December 08, 2020

SpaceX Crew Dragon “Resilience” docks with ISS

A SpaceX Crew Dragon carrying four astronauts docked with the International Space Station Monday, the first of what NASA hopes will be many routine missions ending US reliance on Russian rockets.“Dragon SpaceX, soft capture confirmed,” said an announcer as the capsule completed its 27.5 hour journey at 11:01 pm (0401 GMT Tuesday), with the second part of the procedure, “hard capture,” occurring a few minutes later.The spacecraft, named “Resilience,” docked autonomously with the space station some 260 miles (400 kilometers) above the Midwestern US state of Ohio.The crew is comprised of three Americans — Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker — and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi.Earlier, mission commander Hopkins gave pilot Glover his “gold pin,” a NASA tradition when an astronaut first crosses the 100-kilometer Karman line marking the official boundary of space.Glover is the first Black astronaut to make an extended stay at the ISS, while Noguchi is the first non-American to fly to orbit on a private spaceship.The crew joins two Russians and one American aboard the station, and will stay for six months.Along the way, there was a problem with the cabin temperature control system, but it was quickly solved.SpaceX briefly transmitted live images from inside the capsule showing the astronauts in their seats, something neither the...

Read More........→December 08, 2020

SpaceX capsule with 4 astronauts reaches space station

NOV 17, 2020 SpaceX's newly launched capsule with four astronauts arrived Monday at the International Space Station, their new home until spring. The Dragon capsule pulled up and docked late Monday night, following a 27-hour, completely automated flight from NASA''s Kennedy Space Center. The linkup occurred 262 miles (422 kilometers) above Idaho. "Oh, what a good voice to hear," space station astronaut Kate Rubins called out when the Dragon''s commander, Mike Hopkins, first made radio contact. "We can''t wait to have you on board," she added after the two spacecraft were latched together. This is the second astronaut mission for SpaceX. But it''s the first time Elon Musk''s company delivered a crew for a full half-year station stay. The two-pilot test flight earlier this year lasted two months. The three Americans and one Japanese astronaut will remain at the orbiting lab until their replacements arrive on another Dragon in April. And so it will go, with SpaceX - and eventually Boeing - transporting astronauts to and from the station for NASA. This regular taxi service got underway with Sunday night''s launch. Hopkins and his crew - Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Japan''s Soichi Noguchi - join two Russians and one American who flew to the space station last month from Kazakhstan. Glover is the first African-American to move in...

Read More........→November 17, 2020