Kalpana Chawla

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Kalpana Chawla

Astronaut
Status Deceased
July 1, 1961
Born
Karnal, Haryana, India
February 1, 2003 (aged 41)
Died
Over Texas
Previous occupation Research Scientist
Time in space 31d 14h 54m
Selection 1994 NASA Group
Missions STS-87, STS-107

Mission insignia

Kalpana Chawla (Hindi: कल ्‍पना चावला; Punjabi: ਕਲਪਨਾ ਚਾਵਲਾ) (March 17, 1962 – February
1, 2003), was an Indian-American astronaut and space shuttle mission specialist. She was one of
seven crewmembers killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

Contents
• 1 Early life
• 2 Education
 • 3 NASA career
• 4 Awards
• 5 Memorials

Early life
Kalpana Chawla was born in a Punjabi family in Karnal, Haryana, India.[1] Kalpana in Sanskrit
means "imagination". Her interest in flying was inspired by J. R. D. Tata, a pioneering Indian
pilot and industrialist.[2][3]
Education
Kalpana Chawla did her earlier schooling at Tagore Public School, Karnal. She earned her
Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering at Punjab Engineering College in
Chandigarh in 1982. She moved to the United States in 1982 and obtained a Master of Science
degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington (1984). Chawla
earned a second Master of Science degree in 1986 and a PhD in aerospace engineering in 1988
from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Later that year she began working for NASA Ames
Research Center as vice president of Overset Methods, Inc. where she did CFD research on
V/STOL.[2] Chawla held a Certificated Flight Instructor rating for airplanes, gliders and
Commercial Pilot licenses for single and multiengine airplanes, seaplanes and gliders. She held
an FCC issued Technician Class Amateur Radio license with the call sign KD5ESI. She met and
married Jean-Pierre Harrison, a flying instructor and aviation writer, in 1983 and became a
naturalized United States citizen in 1990.[4]
NASA career

Chawla in the space shuttle simulator

Chawla joined the NASA astronaut corps in March 1995 and was selected for her first flight in
1998. Her first space mission began on November 19, 1997 as part of the six astronaut crew that
flew the Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87. Chawla was the first Indian-born woman and the
second person of Indian origin to fly in space, following cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma who flew in
1984 in a Soviet spacecraft. On her first mission Chawla travelled over 10.4 million miles in 252
orbits of the earth, logging more than 360 hours in space. During STS-87, she was responsible
for deploying the Spartan Satellite which malfunctioned, necessitating a spacewalk by Winston
Scott and Takao Doi to capture the satellite. A five-month NASA investigation fully exonerated
Chawla by identifying errors in software interfaces and the defined procedures of flight crew and
ground control.
After the completion of STS-87 post-flight activities, Kalpana was assigned to technical
positions in the astronaut office, her performance in which was recognized with a special award
from her peers
In 2000 she was selected for her second flight as part of the crew of STS-107. This mission was
repeatedly delayed due to scheduling conflicts and technical problems such as the July 2002
discovery of cracks in the shuttle engine flow liners. On January 16, 2003, Chawla finally
returned to space abroad Columbia on the ill-fated STS-107 mission. Chawla's responsibilities
included the SPACEHAB/BALLE-BALLE/FREESTAR microgravity experiments, for which the
crew conducted nearly 80 experiments studying earth and space science, advanced technology
development, and astronaut health and safety.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]
Chawla's last visit to India was during the 1991–1992 new year holiday when she and her
husband spent time with her family. For various reasons, Chawla was never able to follow up on
invitations to visit India after she became an astronaut.
Awards
Posthumously awarded:
• Congressional Space Medal of Honor
• NASA Space Flight Medal
• NASA Distinguished Service Medal
• Defense Distinguished Service Medal

Memorials
• Kalpana Chawla Memorial Scholarship program was instituted by Indian students
association (ISA) at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in 2005 for meritorious
graduate students.[17]
• Asteroid 51826 Kalpanachawla, one of seven citations named after the Columbia's
crew[18]
• On February 5, 2003, India's Prime Minister announced that the meteorological series of
satellites, "METSAT", will be renamed as "KALPANA". The first satellite of the series,
"METSAT-1", launched by India on September 12, 2002 will be now known as
"KALPANA-1". "KALPANA-2" is expected to be launched by 2007.[19]
• 74th Street in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City has been renamed 74th Street
Kalpana Chawla Way in her honor.
• The University of Texas at Arlington (where Chawla obtained a Master of Science degree
in Aerospace Engineering in 1984) opened a dormitory named in her honor, Kalpana
Chawla Hall, in 2004.[20]
• Kalpana Chawla Award award was instituted by the government of Karnataka in 2004 for
young women scientists[21]
• The girls hostel at Punjab Engineering College, is named after Kalpana Chawla. In
addition, an award of INR twenty five thousand, a medal, and a certificate is instituted for
the best student in Aeronautical engineering department[22]
• NASA has dedicated a super computer to Kalpana.[23]
• One of Florida Institute of Technology's student apartment complexes, Columbia Village
Suites, has halls named after each of the astronauts, including Chawla.
• NASA Mars Exploration Rover mission has named seven peaks in a chain of hills, named
the Columbia Hills, after each of the seven astronauts lost in the Columbia shuttle
disaster, including Chawla hill after Kalpana Chawla.
• Steve Morse from the band Deep Purple created a song called "Contact Lost" in memory
of the Columbia tragedy along with her interest in the band. The song can be found on the
album Bananas.[24]
• Her brother, Sanjay Chawla, remarked "To me, my sister is not dead. She is immortal.
Isn't that what a star is? She is a permanent star in the sky. She will always be up there
where she belongs."[25]
• Novelist Peter David named a shuttlecraft, the Chawla, after the astronaut in his 2007
Star Trek novel, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Before Dishonor.[26]
• Government of Haryana has made a Planetarium after her name called as Kalpana
Chawla Planetarium in Jyotisar,Kurukshetra[27]
• Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur started the Kalpana Chawla Space Technology
Cell in her honor. [28][29]
• Military housing development at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland has been
named Columbia Colony. There is also a street named Chawla Way.