Indian-American space expert named NASA's new chief technologist

An IndianAmerican aerospace industry expert has been appointed as NASAs new chief technologist to serve as principal advisor to Administrator Bill Nelson on technology policy and programmes at the space agencys headquarters hereIn his position AC Charania will align NASAs agencywide technology investments with mission needs across six mission directorates and oversee technology collaboration with other federal agencies the private sector and external stakeholders NASA said in a statement on MondayThe position works within NASAs Office for Technology Policy and StrategyTechnology plays a vital role in every NASA mission Making sure that were pursuing the best policy objectives allows this agency to continue to serve as a global leader in innovation Bhavya Lal NASA associate administrator for technology policy and strategy was quoted as saying in the statementAlso Read From Kurla slum to Mars and beyondCharania is an experienced leader in managing large rapidly shifting technology portfolios I am eager for him to apply his knowledge and enthusiasm at NASA Lal saidLal served as acting chief technologist prior to the appointment of Charania whose first day working at NASA Headquarters was January 3The rate of advancement we seek in the 21st century is dependent upon selecting and maturing a portfolio of technologies into systems to execute our missions Charania said in the statementWith this in mind there are incredible opportunities in partnerships within and outside of NASA I now look forward to the opportunity to work with the entire community to increase the rate of space and aviation progress he addedPrior to joining NASA he served as vice president of product strategy at Reliable Robotics a firm that works to bring certified autonomous vehicles to commercial aviationHis previous experience also includes working at Blue Origin to mature its lunar permanence strategy Blue Moon lunar lander program and multiple technology initiatives with NASACharania has also worked in strategy and business development for the Virgin Galactic now Virgin Orbit LauncherOne small satellite launch vehicle programmeCharania led the formation of the FastForward industry group focused on highspeed pointtopoint transportation was a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts fellow and served on the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group Commercial Advisory Board according to the releaseHe received a bachelors and a masters degree in aerospace engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a bachelors in economics from Emory UniversityThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever