Ex-Navy SEAL and Harvard graduate is NASA's first Korean-American astronaut

[F-22Raptor]

At just 35 years old, Jonny Kim has served overseas as a Navy SEAL and graduated from Harvard Medical School. Last week, he became NASA's first Korean-American astronaut.

Thirteen men and women celebrated their completion of NASA's Artemis astronaut training program on Friday. Each of them is now a candidate for future missions, which could include a trip to the moon and Mars.

A record-setting 18,000 applicants recently applied to join the ranks as a NASA astronaut. The U.S. Embassy in Seoul said Kim is the first Korean-American to make the cut.

"A true privilege and honor to walk among the @nasa Astronaut Corps with my brothers and sisters," Kim tweeted Tuesday. "We know there are many qualified and deserving candidates out there — we're the lucky ones to represent humanity. Let's work towards a better future for our world and our children."

The purpose of the Artemis program is to build a sustainable infrastructure on the moon that can be used in preparation for Mars exploration. NASA plans to send the next man and first woman to the moon by 2024.

Kim was born and raised in Los Angeles to Korean-American immigrants. His parents were South Korean immigrants who came to the U.S. in the early 1980s to provide their children with a better life.

As a Navy Seal, Kim served as a Special Operations Combat Medic, sniper, navigator and point man on more than 100 combat operations during two deployments to the Middle East.

Kim went on to earn his degree in mathematics at the University of San Diego and a doctorate of medicine from Harvard Medical School. When he got the call about his astronaut candidacy in 2017, he was a resident physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Kim completed two years of training as an astronaut candidate before graduating last week. According to NASA, training included technical and operational instruction in International Space Station systems, Extravehicular Activities Operations, T-38 flight training, robotics, physiological training, expeditionary training, field geology, water and wilderness survival training and Russian language proficiency training.

"I fundamentally believed in the NASA mission of advancing our space frontier, all the while developing innovations and new technologies that would benefit all of humankind," Kim said in a 2017 NASA interview about becoming an astronaut candidate.

But Kim said his accomplishments haven't come easy. "All things that are worthwhile are very difficult to obtain," he said.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/artemi...a-first-korean-american-astronaut-2020-01-14/

 

[dani92]

Congratulations to Him.

 

[F-22Raptor]

NASA classmates

SEAL brothers

 

[Uguduwa]

This dude is fucking CRAZY!!!!! Navy SEAL, Astronaut, Doctor, Mathematician, Harvard Graduate

 

[F-22Raptor]

This dude is fucking CRAZY!!!!! Navy SEAL, Astronaut, Doctor, Mathematician, Harvard Graduate

And he might have the opportunity to land on the Moon. Putting all of us to shame lol....

 

[dani92]

This dude is fucking CRAZY!!!!! Navy SEAL, Astronaut, Doctor, Mathematician, Harvard Graduate

Asians are always smart, specially Chinese, Koreans and Japanese.

 

[Uguduwa]

And he might have the opportunity to land on the Moon. Putting all of us to shame lol....

I wish i could achieve at least 10% of what he did

Asians are always smart, specially Chinese, Koreans and Japanese.

He's also a Navy SEAL. Not many Asians can do that

He's the Asian Jonny Sins

 

[S10]

Navy Seal, Harvard, Mathematics and Medical degrees, astronaut?

Holy shit he's every Asian parents' dream child.

 

[dani92]

I wish i could achieve at least 10% of what he did


He's also a Navy SEAL. Not many Asians can do that

He's the Asian Jonny Sins

There was James Suh the Korean American born navy seal who was killed in operation red wing when they went to rescue Marcus luttrell when his chinook was hit by RPG-7.

 

[Raider 21]

NASA classmates

SEAL brothers

An exceptional man. I spot Raja Chari in there too. His bio is amazing as well. I think he's of an Indian origin.

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/raja-chari/biography

 

[Telescopic Sight]

An exceptional man. I spot Raja Chari in there too. His bio is amazing as well. I think he's of an Indian origin.

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/raja-chari/biography

That's amazing that you spotted him ! I remember reading about him way back. Here is an article from Times Of India about that aspect :

"Born and brought up in the US, Raja did not forget his India roots. As a pilot in the US Air Force, he flew an F 15 E to Bengaluru for an air show in 2005. During that time he travelled to Hyderabad and met grandmother Ambuja Devi. In interviews to newspapers in the US, he said his regular travels to Hyderabad were a kind of a pilgrimage."

"Chari’s middle class family migrated from Telangana’s backward Mahbubnagar district to Hyderabad in the 1950s. His father, Srinivas Chari, who studied engineering at Osmania University, flew to Wisconsin in the US in the 1970s for further studies. He met wife Peggy Egbert, an American nurse at University of Wisconsin, there. They married in 1976 and took up a job with John Deere where he worked for 32 years. Chari Sr died in April 2010."

 

[Song Hong]

He won't be an astronaut. USA has no space vessel. USA cannot go to space.

His best hope is to get a free ride from China Shenzhou rocket.

 

[Raider 21]

That's amazing that you spotted him ! I remember reading about him way back. Here is an article from Times Of India about that aspect :

"Born and brought up in the US, Raja did not forget his India roots. As a pilot in the US Air Force, he flew an F 15 E to Bengaluru for an air show in 2005. During that time he travelled to Hyderabad and met grandmother Ambuja Devi. In interviews to newspapers in the US, he said his regular travels to Hyderabad were a kind of a pilgrimage."

"Chari’s middle class family migrated from Telangana’s backward Mahbubnagar district to Hyderabad in the 1950s. His father, Srinivas Chari, who studied engineering at Osmania University, flew to Wisconsin in the US in the 1970s for further studies. He met wife Peggy Egbert, an American nurse at University of Wisconsin, there. They married in 1976 and took up a job with John Deere where he worked for 32 years. Chari Sr died in April 2010."

That is great for his side as he got to travel to where his family originates from. But Times of India would spin anything to make him more currently Indian and less American. Forgive my bias towards ToI, but I see them doing that a lot, it may or may not apply in the article quote you posted.