A.C. Charania, an Indian-American expert in aerospace, has been appointed by NASA as its new chief technologist. He will be the agency’s primary advisor on technology policy and programs at its headquarters in Washington.
In his position, Charania will manage technological collaboration with other government agencies, the private sector, and external stakeholders in addition to aligning NASA’s agency-wide technology investments with mission needs across six mission directorates.
The Office for Technology, Policy, and Strategy at NASA is where the job is situated.
“The 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 a NASA press statement.
“With 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 added.
Bill Nelson’s main advisor going forward will be Charania. He was vice president of product strategy at Reliable Robotics, a firm that strives to bring certified autonomous vehicles to commercial aviation before he rejoined NASA.
In the past, he has also contributed to the creation of Blue Origin’s plan for lunar permanence, the Blue Moon lunar lander program, and numerous technical initiatives with NASA.
“A.C. is an experienced leader in managing large, rapidly shifting technology portfolios. I am eager for him to apply his knowledge and enthusiasm at NASA,” Bhavya Lal, NASA associate administrator for technology, policy, and strategy, said in a press statement.
Before Charania was appointed, Lal held the position of acting chief technologist. Charania started working at NASA Headquarters on January 3.
Charania has also worked in strategy and commercial development
For the LauncherOne small satellite launch vehicle program at Virgin Galactic (now Virgin Orbit), Charania has also worked in strategy and commercial development.
At SpaceWorks Enterprises, he also held several management and technical positions and was involved in the incubation of two businesses, Generation Orbit and Terminal Velocity Aerospace.
According to a press release from the agency, Charania oversaw the institution of the FastForward industry group, which is devoted to high-speed point-to-point transportation. She was also a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts fellow and a member of the Commercial Advisory Board for the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group.
He was somewhat in aerospace engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University as well as a bachelor’s in economics.
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