Indian American Astronauts Who Reached Space
Over three decades, four Indian Americans achieved significant milestones in space exploration. In 1997, Kalpana Chawla became the first woman of Indian origin in orbit, tragically dying during the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003. Sunita Williams traveled to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2006, setting spacewalk records, and returned for a nine-month mission […]
Kalpana Chawla
Kalpana Chawla was born in Karnal, India, and moved to the US for graduate school, earning a PhD in aerospace engineering before joining NASA in 1994. In 1997, she became the first woman of Indian origin to reach orbit. She tragically died at age forty when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry over Texas on February 1, 2003. Following her death, India named a satellite in her honor.
Raja Chari
Raja Chari grew up in Iowa, the son of an Indian immigrant father. He graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy, earned a master’s degree from MIT, and flew sixty combat missions before NASA selected him as an astronaut in 2017. In November 2021, he commanded the multinational SpaceX Crew-3 mission to the International Space Station. He became the first Indian American to command an ISS mission, spending 176 days in orbit before returning in May 2022.
Sunita Williams
Sunita Williams was born in Ohio to a Gujarati immigrant father and a Slovenian mother. She graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and worked as a test pilot before NASA selected her in 1998. During her 2006 International Space Station mission, she set a record for the most spacewalk time by a woman. In 2024, she returned to the ISS aboard Boeing’s Starliner for an extended nine-month mission, and returned in 2025.
Sirisha Bandla
Sirisha Bandla was born in Andhra Pradesh, India, and raised partly in Houston, Texas. She studied aeronautical engineering at Purdue University and built a career in commercial spaceflight, eventually serving as Vice President of Government Affairs at Virgin Galactic. On July 11, 2021, she flew on Richard Branson’s inaugural crewed spaceflight aboard VSS Unity. This flight made her the third woman of Indian origin to reach space.