Kalpana Chawla, an inspiration for many kids and women, was the first Indian aeronautical engineer who travelled in space. Her achievements and contributions have been immense and that is why she is considered to be a role model for many people across the globe. A very tragic event in space shuttle “Columbia” killed seven preeminent astronauts and one of them was Kalpana Chawla, an Indian-born first woman to travel in space.
Early Life of Kalpana Chawla
Kalpana was born in 1961 on 1st July in a very small town located in Karnal, Haryana. Being the youngest child amongst four kids in the family, she was the most pampered one. She started her education in Tagore Public School and finally for graduation got enrolled in Punjab engineering College to complete her degree in aeronautical engineering in 1982. The very same year she went to the US and got married to Jean-Pierre Harrison in 1983. In the year 1984 she finished her master’s degree from the University of Texas in Aerospace Engineering. In 1988 she got a PhD in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Kaplan’s Flying Career
She was a certified flight instructor as well as commercial pilot and because of so many degrees in Aerospace engineering she landed with a job in NASA as a Vice President of Overset Methods Inc in the year 1993. Being extensively involved in computational fluid dynamics research related to Vertical/Short takeoff and Landing she became a vital part of the Astronaut Corps at NASA in 1995.
She was chosen for her first mission to travel around Earth in a huge space shuttle in 1996 and her first mission began on November 19, 1997. During her first mission she travelled 6.5 million miles in 252 orbits around earth, but this mission proved to be a failure.
She was chosen for the second flight and for extensive training she was stationed at Lyndon B Johnson Space Center located in Houston, Texas. Her second mission got delayed in July 2002 due to identification of three cracks in the shuttle. But after six months the shuttle was cleared and she boarded the ill-fated STS-107 mission which met with an accident.
Kalpana Chawla had been totally dedicated to the scientific goals of FREESTAR/ SPACEHAB microgravity research mission, and along with the whole crew she conducted around 80 experiments related to studying space and earth science, astronaut health & safety, and advanced technology development.
Personal Characters
Kalpana was a very strict vegetarian and on every mission she carried a white silk banner in order to pay a token of respect to teachers across the globe. She was fond of Indian music and always carried dozens of CDs along, especially of famous singers like Abeeda Perveen, Deep Purple, and Ravi Shankar etc.
Although she lived in the US but will always be considered as a pride of India. Her achievements are and will always be great inspirations for others. All through her lifetime Kalpana won many prestigious awards like NASA Space Flight medal and many more.
