NASA Astronaut Raja Chari

Chari has accumulated more than 2,500 hours of flight time in the F-35, F-15, F-16, and F-18 including F-15E combat missions in Operation Iraqi Freedom and deployments in support of the Korean peninsula.

The Iowa native graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1999 with a Bachelor’s Degree in astronautical engineering and engineering science. He continued on to earn a Master’s Degree in aeronautics and astronautics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

At the time of his selection in June 2017, Chari was a Colonel select in the U.S. Air Force, serving as the Commander of the 461st Flight Test Squadron and the Director of the F-35 Integrated Test Force.