Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
Raja Chari, whose considerable flight experience so far has included a journey into space, was born in Milwaukee in 1977 to Sreenivas V. “Shari” Chari and Peggy Egbert. “Shari” Chari, an engineer, had been born in the city of Hyderabad in India in 1942. He and Peggy Egbert met in Milwaukee while he was a... Continue Reading →
In 2020, Josephine Tauoa made U.S. Navy history as the first female American Samoan to be promoted to command master chief petty officer. (An unincorporated territory of the United States, American Samoa is southeast of the independent state of Samoa in the South Pacific Ocean.) As command master chief petty officer (CMC), Tauoa serves as... Continue Reading →
In the early part of 1942 – not long after the United States entered World War II on the side of the Allies -- the Kaiser Shipbuilding Company established an emergency shipyard along the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington, to construct vessels for the global fight against the Axis powers. The Vancouver Shipyard started out... Continue Reading →
In 2018, Pooja Joshin Jesrani became the first woman of South Asian descent to serve as a flight director at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA’s flight directors are responsible for managing operations for various human spaceflight initiatives. Jesrani’s own role in this regard has involved overseeing the ground team for the International... Continue Reading →
In 1968, Juan T. Salas became the first Chamorro to graduate from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy (USCGA) in New London, Connecticut. The Chamorros are indigenous Pacific Islanders from the Mariana Archipelago. Salas grew up in the village of Piti on the western coast of Guam, a U.S. territory that is the largest and southernmost... Continue Reading →
Over the past couple of decades, Mamta Patel Nagaraja has worked on various spaceflight priorities and initiatives at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). “I believe in the power of knowledge, of discovering, of exploring,” she said when describing her longtime passion for that field of human endeavor. Patel was born in Anaheim, California.... Continue Reading →
Nainoa Thompson is widely regarded as the first Native Hawaiian in modern times to adopt and successfully use traditional Polynesian voyaging methods for open-ocean sailing. Those methods rely on natural reference points (e.g., the Sun, stars, sea swells, the movements of fish and birds) instead of today’s conventional wayfinding instruments for navigation. (A sub-region of... Continue Reading →
In 2017, entrepreneur and amateur pilot Ravinder Bansal set a new record as the first person of Indian origin to complete a solo flight around the world in a single-engine plane. Bansal was born in the city and municipal corporation of Ambala in India in 1949. By the 1970s, he had made his way to... Continue Reading →
As a public health scientist, T. Bella Dinh-Zarr has focused on promoting safe and sustainable transportation both within the United States and across the globe. Dinh-Zarr began her life’s journey in Vietnam. When she was only four years old, Dinh-Zarr and her family fled that country for the United States. They settled in Galveston, Texas,... Continue Reading →
In 2001, Mark L. Polansky became the first Korean-American to travel into outer space. He had been born in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1956. His mother Edith is of Korean descent, and his late father Irving was Jewish. When he was only 13, Mark Polansky began to develop a strong interest in spaceflight while watching... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 