US space agency NASA has appointed Indian-American aerospace expert AC Charania as its new Chief Technologist. Charania will serve as the principal advisor to Administrator Bill Nelson on technology policy and programmes.
AC Charania joined NASA in his new role on January 3, replacing fellow Indian-American scientist Bhavya Lal, who served as the acting chief technologist.
Charania’s position falls within NASA’s Office for Technology, Policy, and Strategy.
The Chief Technologist will “align NASA's agency-wide technology investments with mission needs across six mission directorates and oversee technology collaboration with other federal agencies, the private sector, and external stakeholders,” NASA noted in a statement on Monday.
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Who is AC Charania?
AC Charania has a Bachelor's and Master's degree in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He also has a bachelor's degree in Economics from Emory University.
Before joining NASA, Charania served as the vice president of product strategy at Reliable Robotics, which develops automation platforms and is aiming to bring certified autonomous vehicles to commercial aviation.
According to a release from NASA, the Indian-American has served in multiple management and technology roles at SpaceWorks Enterprises, and he has helped incubate two start-ups, Generation Orbit and Terminal Velocity Aerospace.
Charania has also worked at private aerospace company Blue Origin for its lunar permanence strategy, the Blue Moon lunar lander program.
Charania was also a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts fellow, and he served on the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group Commercial Advisory Board.
Charania previously worked for Virgin Galactic (now Virgin Orbit) in strategy and business development for LauncherOne small satellite launch vehicle programme.
His experience also includes leading the formation of the FastForward industry group which is focused on high-speed point-to-point transportation.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
