NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) have selected threeastronauts, including Indian-American Raja Chari, to serve as crew members forSpaceX Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station (ISS), which isexpected to launch in the autumn of 2021.
Raja Chari will serve as commander while NASA's TomMarshburn will be pilot and ESA's Matthias Maurer will serve as a missionspecialist, NASA said on Monday.
A fourth crew member will be added at a later date,following a review by NASA and its international partners.
This will be the first spaceflight for Raja Chari, whobecame a NASA astronaut in 2017.
He is a colonel in the US Air Force and joins the missionwith extensive experience as a test pilot. He has accumulated more than 2,500hours of flight time in his career.
Chari was among the 18 astronauts selected last week to formthe Artemis Team and help pave the way for the next lunar missions, includingsending the first woman and next man to walk on the lunar surface in 2024.
His father Sreenivas V. Chari immigrated from Hyderabad.
Marshburn is a Statesville, North Carolina, native whobecame an astronaut in 2004.
Prior to serving in the astronaut corps, the medical doctorserved as flight surgeon at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and laterbecame medical operations lead for the International Space Station.
The Crew-3 mission will be his third visit to the spacestation and his second long-duration mission.
Marshburn previously served as a crew member of STS-127 in2009 and Expedition 34/35, which concluded in 2013.
Maurer comes from Sankt Wendel, in the German state ofSaarland.
Like Chari, Maurer will be making his first trip to spacewith the Crew-3 mission.
When Chari, Marshburn, and Maurer arrive at the orbitinglaboratory, they will become expedition crew members for the duration of theirsix-month stay.
This will be the third crew rotation mission of SpaceX'shuman space transportation system and its fourth flight with astronauts,including the Demo-2 test flight, to the space station through NASA'sCommercial Crew Program.
(Source: IANS)