USA space agency NASA has selected 12 new astronauts, one of them an Indian-American, after screening over 18,300 applicants.
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Those who complete the training will officially be named NASA astronauts, but for now, they are known as “ascans”.
NASA whittles its total applicant pool down by filtering out people who don’t meet those criteria and by relying on the input of a panel of experts, mostly active astronauts.
Col. Raja Chari, who has been selected for promotion to colonel, relinquishes command of the squadron tomorrow.
After receiving a record-breaking 18,300 applications to join the future of space exploration, the U.S. space agency selected its largest astronaut class since 2000. Awarded the US Navy Test Pilot School Class 144 Outstanding Developmental Phase II Award and the Commander Willie McCool Outstanding Student Award as the Class 144 Honor Graduate.
NASA officially announced their highly anticipated 2017 astronaut class Wednesday.
She has flown more than 150 combat missions in the Marines. After finishing, he will be assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office while he awaits a flight assignment. “It’s such a diverse group, and I’m thrilled to join my experience in microbiology and field research with the test pilots, medical doctors, engineers and everyone else”.
The new batch from NASA Astronaut Class 2017 is composed of five women and seven men. Vice President Mike Pence took part in the event at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
NASA Astronauts, the official handle, recently Tweeted introducing Raja.
Pence assured the crowd NASA will have the resources and support necessary to continue to make history.
“These are 12 men and women whose personal excellence and whose personal courage will carry our nation to even greater heights of discovery”.
She promised to keep in touch with WISH-TV, letting us know how training goes and, of course, when she receives her first mission into space.
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Twenty-four Purdue alumni have been chosen as astronauts by NASA. Jessica Watkins, 28, a post-doctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology, joins the class after serving on the science team operating the car-sized Curiosity rover which has been exploring Gale Crater on Mars since August 2012. The last time the space agency launched astronauts from American soil was 2011, when the space shuttles were retired.
