The First Indian Woman to Space - Kalpana Chawla

Birthday: March 17, 1962

Nationality: American

Famous: Astronauts American Women

Died At Age: 40

Sun Sign: Pisces

Born Country: India

Born In: Karnal, India

Famous As: Astronaut

Height: 1.63 M

Family:

Spouse/Ex-: Jean-Pierre Harrison (M. 1983–2003)

Father: Banarasi Lal Chawla

Mother: Sanjyothi Chawla

Literally, a star

Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian-born woman to fly in space would have turned 55 today if not for that fateful accident on February 1, 2003 when Space Shuttle Columbia perished upon entry to the earth's atmosphere leading to her death and six other astronauts.

Let's take a look at some facts about this wonder woman whose achievements continue to inspire many.

Kalpana chose her own name

Apparently her parents never gave her a formal name but nicknamed her Montu. She picked her formal name at age three when she was brought to a nursery school by her aunt. The principal asked her name to which her aunt replied: "We have three names in our mind - Kalpana, Jyotsna and Sunaina." When the principal asked her to pick a name she chose Kalpana.

She moved to US to become a NASA scientist

After completing her degree from Punjab Engineering College, she applied for Master of Science in University of Texas. After finishing the masters in 1984, to increase her prospects of becoming an astronaut at NASA, she enrolled for a Ph.D. In 1988, she completed her Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado.

Few things named after Kalpana Chawla

* The 74th Street in Jackson Heights, Queens in New York City was renamed to 'Kalpana Chawla Street'.

* In her honour, the Haryana government set up a medical college and hospital in Karnal worth Rs 650 crore.

*There's a hill on Mars with her name.

*A Nasa Supercomputer is named after her.

*An asteroid that circles between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter called the 51826 Kalpanachawla.

*India's first weather satellite, the Kalpana 1.

*A planetarium in Kurukshetra, near Karnal.

The tragic loss of the space shuttle Columbia killed seven astronauts. One of those, Kalpana Chawla, was the first Indian-born woman in space.

Born in Karnal, India, on July 1, 1961, Chawla was the youngest of four children. The name Kalpana means "idea" or "imagination." Her full name is pronounced CULL-puh-na CHAV-la, though she often went by the nickname K.C.

Chawla obtained a degree in aeronautical engineering from Punjab Engineering College before immigrating to the United States and becoming a naturalized citizen in the 1980s. She earned a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado in 1988, having previously obtained her masters degree from the University of Texas. She began working at NASA's Ames Research Center the same year, working on power-lift computational fluid dynamics.

In 1994, Chawla was selected as an astronaut candidate. After a year of training, she became a crew representative for the Astronaut Office EVA/Robotics and Computer Branches, where she worked with Robotic Situational Awareness Displays and tested software for the space shuttles.

Chawla's first opportunity to fly in space came in November 1997, aboard the space shuttle Columbia on flight STS-87. The shuttle made 252 orbits of the Earth in just over two weeks. The shuttle carried a number of experiments and observing tools on its trip, including a Spartan satellite, which Chawla deployed from the shuttle. The satellite, which studied the outer layer of the sun, malfunctioned due to software errors, and two other astronauts from the shuttle had to perform a spacewalk to recapture it.

Disaster strikes

In 2000, Chawla was selected for her second voyage into space, serving again as a mission specialist on STS-107. The mission was delayed several times, and finally launched in 2003. Over the course of the 16-day flight, the crew completed more than 80 experiments.

On the morning of Feb. 1, 2003, the space shuttle returned to Earth, intending to land at Kennedy Space Center. At launch, a briefcase-sized piece of insulation had broken off and damaged the thermal protection system of the shuttle's wing, the shield that protects it from heat during re-entry. As the shuttle passed through the atmosphere, hot gas streaming into the wing caused it to break up. The unstable craft rolled and bucked, pitching the astronauts about. Less than a minute passed before the ship depressurized, killing the crew. The shuttle broke up over Texas and Louisiana before plunging into the ground. The accident was the second major disaster for the space shuttle program, following the 1986 explosion of the shuttle Challenger.

The entire crew of seven was killed. In addition to Chawla, the crew included:

• Commander Rick D. Husband
• Pilot William C. McCool
• Payload Commander Michael P. Anderson
• Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut
• Mission Specialists David M. Brown and Laurel B. Clark

Over the course of her two missions, Chawla logged 30 days, 14 hours, and 54 minutes in space. After her first launch, she said, "When you look at the stars and the galaxy, you feel that you are not just from any particular piece of land, but from the solar system."