Remembering Kalpana Chawla: 11 lesser-known facts about the space pioneer

Born in Karnal, Haryana, Kalpana was the first Indian woman who went to space. In her memory, the first Indian water satellite was named 'Kalpana 1.' Here are 11 lesser-known facts about her

Kalpana Chawla birth anniversary: The discussion about space seems incomplete without mentioning the first Indian-origin woman to fly to space, Kalpana Chawla. She was born on March 17, 1962, in Karnal, Haryana. The Indian American astronaut was one of the seven crew members who died in the 2003 Columbia Space Shuttle disaster when the vehicle disintegrated upon its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

 

In her will, she expressed that she wanted her ashes to be either scattered over the Himalayas or the Zion National Park in Utah. The remains of Kalpana Chawala were identified along with those of the other crew members, and her ashes were scattered across Zion National Park as per her will.

 

 

Kalpana, who is also regarded as a national hero in India, took her flight to space aboard Columbia Space Shuttle in 1997. She joined the crew as a mission specialist and primary robotic arm operator.

 

11 lesser known facts about Kalpana Chawla

1. During the partition of India, Kalpana's parents migrated to India from Sheikhupura in Pakistan, and she was born in Punjabi's Karnal, Haryana, in a Hindu family.

2. Her love for airplanes began in childhood when she used to visit local flying clubs and watch planes with her father. Her inspiration was India’s first licensed pilot and industrialist JRD Tata. 

3. Kalpana completed her Bachelor of Engineering degree in Aeronautical Engineering at Punjab Engineering College. She was the only girl in her batch. After moving to the US in 1982, she completed a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1984. She did a second master's in 1986 and also a PhD in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1988.

4. Her career with the National Aeronautics Space Agency Ames Research Center began in 1988. She became a naturalised US citizen in April 1991 and joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1995. Her first application to join the corps was rejected in 1993.

5. In her lifetime, she was the first and only Indian-origin woman to fly to space twice. Kalpana's first flight to space was in 1997, when she was a part of a six-member crew. After Rakesh Sharma, she became the second Indian to fly to space. During her first space mission, she talked to then Indian Prime Minister IK Gujaral and showed him the pictures of the Himalayas as captured from space.

6. Chawla's second flight was STS-107, which was the 28th and final flight of Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003. The 16-day mission took off on January 16, 2003, and the flight was scheduled to return on February 1.

7. Kalpana Chawla died along with her six other crew members in the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster. After this tragic incident, NASA halted the Space Shuttle Columbia’s mission for many years. The ISS construction was also on hold, and the station relied entirely on the Russian Roscosmos State Corporation for resupply for 29 months till NASA shuttle flights resumed.

8. Kalpana Chawla was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. She received many more medals from both US and Indian governments posthumously.

9. NASA named seven hills on Mars in memory of the seven astronauts who died in the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster.

10. The first Indian water satellite was named 'Kalpana 1.'

11. Kalpana was married to Jean Pierre Harisson for 20 years before her death in February 2003. She married at the age of 21 on December 2, 1983. Harisson has remarried and has a young son now and runs a publishing company in Los Gatos, California.