NE SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY BUREAU
WASHINGTON, DEC 14
NASA is sending 18 astronauts to the moon’s surface for the first time since 1970s. A team of nine men and nine women astronauts have been chosen for the mission under NASA’s Artemis program.
This was announced at a meeting of the White House’s National Space Council at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida by American Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday. The team includes Indian-American astronaut Raja Chari.
With the leadership of President @realDonaldTrump, our renewed commitment to Space, the courage & ingenuity of this new generation of American explorers & with God’s help, America will continue to astonish the world with the heights we reach & the wonders we achieve. pic.twitter.com/9iMkaMQIDs
— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) December 9, 2020
Chari’s father Sreenivas V Chari had immigrated to the US from Hyderabad. The Indian-American astronaut was raised in Iowa and served as a colonel in the US Air Force. He has a bachelor’s degree in astronautical engineering and a master’s in aeronautics and astronautics. He reportedly had joined the astronaut corps in 2017.
He was among 11 new NASA graduates who successfully completed their over two years’ of basic astronaut training in January 2020. The successful astronauts were selected among 18,000 applicants in 2017 after NASA announced its Artemis programme. Chari, 41, 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.
The Artemis Team members include Joseph Acaba, Kayla Barron, Matthew Dominick, Victor Glover, Warren Hoburg, Jonny Kim, Christina Hammock Koch, Kjell Lindgren, Nicole A. Mann, Anne McClain, Jessica Meir, Jasmin Moghbeli, Kate Rubins, Frank Rubio, Scott Tingle, Jessica Watkins and Stephanie Wilson.
“I give you the heroes who will carry us to the Moon and beyond – the Artemis Generation,” said Vice President Pence. All of the astronauts to reach the moon thus far have been men. The mission’s target date is 2024, though that is expected to slip. Pence said the chosen astronauts “will carry us back to the moon and beyond.” The Artemis is planned as a steppingstone to the more-ambitious goal of placing astronauts on Mars.
“Walking on the lunar surface would be a dream come true for any one of us, and any part we can play in making that happen is an honour.”
“This is the first cadre of our Artemis astronauts,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said.
The 2024 goal, viewed by some in the US space agency and American space industry as unrealistic, is expected to be pushed back after President-elect Joe Biden takes office on January 20.
Before the meeting of the space council, Pence toured Patrick Air Force Base and formally renamed it Patrick Space Force Base. It is named after the space service branch of the U.S. military created under Trump.
The agency’s modern lunar exploration programme will land the first woman and next man on the Moon in 2024 and establish a sustainable human lunar presence by the end of the decade.
