astronauts Archives - Defence Monitor

27 Jan

Indian-American astronaut nominated for promotion to US Air Force brigadier general

New York, Jan 27 (IANS) US President Joe Biden has nominated Indian-American astronaut Raja Chari on the moon mission team for promotion to an Air Force brigadier general, according to the Defence Department. The nomination announced on Thursday will have to be confirmed by the Senate which approves all senior civilian and military appointments. The US Air Force uses the same ranks as the Army, which considers brigadiers to be one-star generals. Chari is a member of the Artemis team of astronauts preparing for the US mission of returning to the moon. In 2021, he commanded a National Aeronautics and Space…

15 Dec

Raja Chari to lead SpaceX mission to ISS

Washington: NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) have selected three astronauts, including Indian-American Raja Chari, to serve as crew members for SpaceX Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station (ISS), which is expected to launch in the autumn of 2021. Raja Chari will serve as commander while NASA's Tom Marshburn will be pilot and ESA's Matthias Maurer will serve as a mission specialist, 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, who became a NASA astronaut…

18 Jun

Moon’s crust hides early history of Sun: NASA scientists

Washington: A team of astrophysicists, including one of Indian origin, has found that the Moon, where NASA will be sending astronauts by 2024, contains clues to the ancient mysteries of the Sun, which are crucial to understanding the development of life.Our natural satellite took shape when a Mars-sized object smashed into Earth about 4.5 billion years ago.The force of this crash sent materials spewing into orbit, where they coalesced into the Moon. "The Earth and Moon would have formed with similar materials, so the question is, why was the Moon depleted in these elements?" asked Rosemary Killen, a planetary scientist at…

03 May

Crew Dragon capsule destroyed in ground test: SpaceX

Washington: SpaceX has confirmed that its Crew Dragon capsule was destroyed during an engine test last month, possibly causing a drag to the company's plan to bring astronauts into space this year.On April 20, an anomaly occurred during a testing of the Crew Dragon's abort engines at a landing zone of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, but the private space company had not clarified whether the capsule, launched successfully into space in an unmanned mission in March, was destroyed or not, until Thursday. Before firing the abort engines, "there was an anomaly and the vehicle was destroyed," said Hans Koenigsmann, vice…

27 Mar

NASA to return humans to Moon within 5 years

Washington: NASA has accepted a challenge from the Donald Trump administration to return humans to the Moon by 2024, four years ahead of the US space agency's earlier set target.US Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday challenged NASA to put humans back on the Moon within five years at a meeting of the National Space Council, CNET reported. "Today, I spoke at the National Space Council where we discussed the need to accelerate our return to the Moon. We will be taking actions to accomplish this and I know @NASA is ready for the challenge of moving forward to the Moon,…

27 Jul

NASA builds prototype for deep space habitat

New York: The first prototype of NASA's deep space habitat will be made up of a recycled aluminum cargo container and will help the space agency to develop life-support systems that can protect astronauts when they travel beyond low-Earth orbits, the media reported. The cargo space container, named Donatello built 15 years ago, will be refurbished into a habitat prototype by Lockheed Martin -- a global security and aerospace company -- at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday. From the outside, Donatello looks like just a massive cylindrical metal container, about 21 feet long and 15…

22 May

NASA astronauts gear up for emergency spacewalk on Tuesday

Washington: Two astronauts aboard the International Space Station will conduct an emergency spacewalk on Tuesday to replace a failed data relay box which is part of a system to control key station hardware, NASA has said. Tuesday's spacewalk, which expected to begin around 8 a.m. EDT and last for about two hours, will be conducted by Expedition 51 Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Jack Fischer of NASA. The space station crew has never been in any danger, and the failure of the data relay box, believed to be internal to the box itself, has had no impact on station activities,…