Raja Chari, an Indian-born astronaut, will be leading the SpaceX-NASA collaborative Crew-3 mission that is preparing to take four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) later this month.

“NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission will carry NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, and Kayla Barron as well as ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket to the space station,” the US space agency said in a statement.  

NASA

The four-astronaut crew is expected to lift off to space on October 30 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the statement added.

Chari will be the commander of the Crew Dragon spacecraft and the Crew-3 mission, “responsible for all phases of flight, from launch to re-entry”, NASA said. 

NASA

Crew-3 is SpaceX’s fifth crewed flight to space and the fourth to the International Space Station. Indian-American Chari will serve as the commander of the Crew Dragon spacecraft and the Crew-3 mission. He also will serve as an Expedition 66 flight engineer aboard the station.  

Born in Milwaukee, he became a NASA astronaut in 2017 and this will be his first spaceflight. Raja Chari is also a colonel in the US Air Force and has extensive experience as a test pilot with more than 2,500 hours of flight time.    

NASA

The Crew-3 mission follows Inspiration4, an all-civilian crewed mission that lifted off on September 15 for an orbital journey aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.