Raja Jon Vurputoor Chari, an Indian-American US Air Force colonel, is among 18 astronauts, half of them women, who have been selected by NASA for its ambitious manned mission to the Moon and beyond. The 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, the American space agency said.
He was selected by NASA to join the 2017 Astronaut Candidate Class. Sharing the news on Twitter, Chari wrote, “Proud to be a small part of the huge @NASA team working to get humans to the moon to stay. We need explorers, engineers, and dreamers to get #Artemis there.” With this, Chari will become the fourth person of Indian origin to go to outer space. The first Indian to enter space was Rakesh Sharma, when he flew aboard the Soviet rocket Soyuz T-11 in 1984.
