Kalpana Chawla - American Astronaut

Kalpana Chawla was born in karnal,Punjab(now in Haryana) on 1 july 1961.She was an Indian-American Astronaut and first indian woman in space.The name kalpana means idea or imagination.

Fifteen years ago, on the morning of February 1,2003 the world lost 7 shining stars, and India - its first Indian-born woman in space. The tragic loss of the space shuttle Columbia that killed seven astronauts, including Kalpana Chawla, resonated far and wide.Chawla was one of the seven crew members who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster when the craft disintegrated during it's re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.Kalpana Chawla logged 30 days, 14 hours, and 54 minutes in space over the course of her two missions.

She moved to the US soon after for her graduate and post-graduate studies and joined Nasa''s Ames Space Center in 1987. She was selected by Nasa in 1994 to be an astronaut.

In 1988, she began working at NASA.She was offered the position of Vice President of Overset Methods, Inc at NASA Research Center and was later assigned to do Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) research on Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing concepts.On acquiring US citizenship in 1991, Kalpana Chawla applied for the NASA Astronaut Corps. She joined the Corps in March 1995 and was selected for her first flight in 1996r

Her first space mission began on May 2, 1997, as part of the six-astronaut crew that flew the Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87. Chawla was the first Indian woman to fly in space.In 2000, Chawla was selected for her second flight as part of the crew of STS-107.

Kalpana Chawla is one of the inspiring personality and an Ideal for numerous people, it’s been 18 years since her passing, but Indo-American astronaut, Kalpana Chawla continues to be an inspirational force for youth all-over, especially girls.Her life itself was a great adventure.

The then Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee dedicated an Indian Space Research Organization, meterological satellite to her, calling it Kalpana-1. The Haryana Gorvenment too set up the Kalpana Chawla scholorship for girl students.