Kalpana Chawla

Kalpana Chawla (March 17, 1962[2][lower-alpha 1]

February 1, 2003) was the rst Indian-American
astronaut[3] and rst Indian woman in space.[4] She rst
ew on Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997 as a mission
specialist and primary robotic arm operator. In 2003,
Chawla was one of the seven crew members killed in the
Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.[5]

eled over 10.4 million miles in 252 orbits of the earth,

logging more than 372 hours in space.[8] During STS87, she was responsible for deploying the Spartan Satellite which malfunctioned, necessitating a spacewalk by
Winston Scott and Takao Doi to capture the satellite. A
ve-month NASA investigation fully exonerated Chawla
by identifying errors in software interfaces and the dened procedures of ight crew and ground control.

After the completion of STS-87 post-ight activities,

Chawla was assigned to technical positions in the astronaut oce to work on the space station, her performance
in which was recognized with a special award from her
Kalpana Chawla was born on March 17, 1962 in Karnal,
peers.
Haryana state, India. She completed her earlier schooling
at Tagore Baal Niketan Senior Secondary School, Karnal and completed her Bachelor of Engineering degree in
Aeronautical Engineering at Punjab Engineering College
at Chandigarh in 1982. She moved to the United States
in 1982 where she obtained a Master of Science degree
in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas
at Arlington in 1984.[6] Determined to become an astronaut even in the face of the Challenger disaster, Chawla
went on to earn a second Masters in 1986 and a PhD[7]
in aerospace engineering in 1988 from the University of
Colorado at Boulder.[8]

Early life

Career

In 1988, she began working at the NASA Ames Research

Center as Vice President of Overset Methods, Inc. where
she did Computational uid dynamics (CFD) research on
Vertical/Short Takeo and Landing concepts.[8] Chawla
held a Certicated Flight Instructor rating for airplanes,
gliders and Commercial Pilot licenses for single and
multi-engine airplanes, seaplanes and gliders.[9]
Becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen in April 1991,
Chawla applied for the NASA Astronaut Corps.[2] She
joined the Corps in March 1995 and was selected for
her rst ight in 1996. She spoke the following words
while traveling in the weightlessness of space, You are
just your intelligence. She had traveled 10.67 million
km, as many as 252 times around the Earth.

Chawla in the space shuttle simulator

In 2000 she was selected for her second ight as part of

the crew of STS-107. This mission was repeatedly delayed due to scheduling conicts and technical problems
such as the July 2002 discovery of cracks in the shuttle engine ow liners. On January 16, 2003, Chawla nally returned to space aboard Columbia on the ill-fated
STS-107 mission. Chawlas responsibilities included the
microgravity experiments, for which the crew conducted
nearly 80 experiments studying earth and space science,
advanced technology development, and astronaut health
and safety.

Her rst space mission began on November 19, 1997, as

part of the six-astronaut crew that ew the Space Shuttle Columbia ight STS-87. Chawla was the rst Indianborn woman and the second Indian person to y in space,
following cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma who ew in 1984
on the Soyuz T-11. On her rst mission, Chawla trav1

5 MEMORIALS

Death

Main article: Space Shuttle Columbia disaster

Chawla died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
which occurred on February 1, 2003, when the Space
Shuttle disintegrated over Texas during re-entry into the
Earths atmosphere, with the death of all seven crew
members, shortly before it was scheduled to conclude its
28th mission, STS-107.[10]

Awards

Posthumously awarded:
Congressional Space Medal of Honor
NASA Space Flight Medal

November 18, 2013, the foundation stone of the college was laid in her memory by the state government.
Asteroid 51826 Kalpanachawla, one of seven
named after the Columbia's crew.[15]
On February 5, 2003, Indias prime minister announced that the meteorological series of satellites,
MetSat, was to be renamed as Kalpana. The rst
satellite of the series, MetSat-1, launched by India
on September 12, 2002, is now known as "Kalpana1". "Kalpana-2" was expected to be launched by
2007.[16]
74th Street in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York
City has been renamed 74th Street Kalpana Chawla
Way in her honor.[17]
The University of Texas at Arlington, where Chawla
obtained a Master of Science degree in aerospace
engineering in 1984, opened a dormitory named
Kalpana Chawla Hall in 2004. [18]

NASA Distinguished Service Medal

Memorials
The girls hostel in NIT Bhopal (Maulana Azad
National Institute of Technology) was renamed to
Kalpana Chawla Bhavan.
The Kalpana Chawla ISU Scholarship fund was
founded by alumni of the International Space
University (ISU) in 2010 to support Indian student participation in international space education
programs.[11]
The Kalpana Chawla Memorial Scholarship pro- Kalpana Chawla Hall, University of Texas Arlington
gram was instituted by the Indian Students Association (ISA) at the University of Texas at El
The Kalpana Chawla Award was instituted by the
Paso (UTEP) in 2005 for meritorious graduate
government of Karnataka in 2004 for young women
[12]
students.
scientists.[19]
The Kalpana Chawla Outstanding Recent Alumni
The girls hostel at Punjab Engineering College is
Award at the University of Colorado, given since
named after Chawla. In addition, an award of INR
[13]
1983, was renamed for Chawla.
twenty-ve thousand, a medal, and a certicate is instituted for the best student in the Aeronautical En In Karnal, Chawlas birthplace, at least 30,000
gineering department.[20]
school children and citizens joined hands to make a
36.4-km-long human chain to support the demand
NASA has dedicated a supercomputer to
for a Kalpana Chawla Government Medical ColChawla.[21]
lege in the city, which was announced by Health
Minister of India C. P. Thakur and later promised
One of Florida Institute of Technology's student
by Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh. The
apartment complexes, Columbia Village Suites, has
Kalpana Chawla Medical College Nirman Commithalls named after each of the astronauts, including
tee, backed by volunteers and activists of various orChawla.
ganizations, supported by students from 34 schools,
The NASA Mars Exploration Rover mission has
swarmed the roads and formed a chain along the
named seven peaks in a chain of hills, named the
roads in Karnal to demonstrate that they continued
Columbia Hills, after each of the seven astronauts
to revere Chawla as an outstanding astronaut.[14] On

3
lost in the Columbia shuttle disaster. One of them is
Chawla Hill, named after Chawla.
Steve Morse from the band Deep Purple created the
song Contact Lost in memory of the Columbia
tragedy along with her interest in the band. The song
can be found on the album Bananas.[22]
Novelist Peter David named a shuttlecraft, the
Chawla, after the astronaut in his 2007 Star Trek
novel, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Before Dishonor.[23]
The University of Texas at Arlington dedicated the
Kalpana Chawla Memorial on May 3, 2010, in
Nedderman Hall, one of the primary buildings in the
College of Engineering.[24]
The Government of Haryana established the
Kalpana Chawla Planetarium in Jyotisar,
Kurukshetra.[25]
The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur,
named the Kalpana Chawla Space Technology Cell
in her honor.[26][27]
Delhi Technological University named a girls hostel
after Chawla.[28]
A military housing development at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, has been named
Columbia Colony, and includes a street named
Chawla Way.
The girls hostel in SIRT Bhopal (Sagar Institute
of Research and Technology) is named Kalpana
Chawla Hostel.[29]
The girls hostel in Pondicherry Central University is
named Kalpana Chawla Hostel. [30]

See also
List of Asian American astronauts
List of female astronauts

Notes

[1] Though her birth date has sometimes been reported as July
1, 1961, that date entered her ocial records because it
was used to enroll her in school at a younger-than-normal
age.

References

[1] Life facts. NASA. Retrieved February 27, 2014.

[2] Basu, Biman (May 2012). Book Review: Biography

of Kalpana Chawla (PDF). Science Reporter: pp.4041.
Retrieved 2013-07-06. Born on 17 March 1962 in Karnal, Haryana.
[3] Salim Rizvi (December 11, 2006). Indo-US astronaut
follows Kalpanas footsteps. New York: BBC. Retrieved
November 20, 2012. Almost four years after the death
of the rst Indian-American astronaut Kalpana Chawla in
the Columbia space shuttle disaster, Nasa has sent another
woman of Indian origin into space.
[4] Nola Taylor Redd. Kalpana Chawla: Biography &
Columbia Disaster. Space.com (Tech Media Network).
Retrieved November 20, 2012.
[5] Kalpana Chawla. Retrieved 2012-05-24.
[6] Chawla, Kalpana (1984), MS Thesis Optimization of cross
ow fan housing for airplane wing installation., University
of Texas at Arlington, p. 97
[7] Chawla, Kalpana (1988), PhD Thesis Computation of dynamics and control of unsteady vortical ows., University
of Colorado at Boulder, p. 147
[8] Kalpana Chawla (PH.D)". Biographical Data. NASA.
Retrieved September 14, 2014.
[9] Kalpana Chawla. I Love India. Retrieved September
14, 2014.
[10] Correspondent, A. Space Shuttle Explodes, Kalpana
Chawla dead. Redi.
[11] Kalpana Chawla International Space University Scholarship
[12] Kalpana Chawla Memorial Scholarship. UTEP. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
[13] Kalpana Chawla Award. University of Colorado. Retrieved 2012-02-12.
[14] "www.tribuneindia.com". The Tribune. India. Retrieved
2010-12-10.
[15] Tribute to the Crew of Columbia. NASA JPL. Retrieved 2007-06-10.
[16] ISRO METSAT Satellite Series Named After Columbia
Astronaut Kalpana Chawla. Spaceref.com. Retrieved
2007-06-10.
[17] Rajghatta, Chidanand (Jul 12, 2004). NY has Kalpana
Chawla Way. The Times of India. Retrieved 27 February
2014.
[18] Kalpana Chawla Hall. University of Texas at Arlington.
Retrieved 2013-05-16.
[19] Kalpana Chawla Award instituted. The Hindu (Chennai,
India). 2004-03-23. Retrieved 2007-06-10.
[20] Punjab Engineering College remembers Kalpana. The
Indian Express. Retrieved 2007-06-10.
[21] NASA Names Supercomputer After Columbia Astronaut. About.com. Retrieved 2007-06-10.

10

[22] Space Music Rock/Pop. HobbySpace. 2005-08-31.

Retrieved 2010-12-10.
[23] David, Peter; Star Trek: Next Generation: Before Dishonor; Page 24.
[24] Kalpana Chawla Display Dedicated at Nedderman Hall.
The University of Texas at Arlington. Retrieved 2013-0516.
[25] IBN News. Ibnlive.in.com. 2010-02-03. Retrieved
2010-12-10.
[26] Saxena, Ambuj. Kalpana Chawla Space Technology Cell
| Flickr Photo Sharing!". Flickr. Retrieved 2010-12-10.
[27] Space Technology Cell.
trieved 2010-12-10.

Kcstc.iitkgp.ernet.in.

Re-

[28] http://hostels.dtu.ac.in/girls-hostels/
kalpana-chawla-hostel/
[29]
[30]

Further reading
Among The Stars-Life and Dreams of Kalpana
Chawla by Gurdeep Pandher
Indias 50 Most Illustrious Women (ISBN 81-8808619-3) by Indra Gupta
Kalpana Chawla, a life (ISBN 0-14-333586-3) by
Anil Padmanabhan
The Edge of Time: The Authoritative Biography of
Kalpana Chawla by Jean-Pierre Harrison

10

External links

Kalpana Chawla Family Foundation

Celebrating Life of Kalpana Chawla
Kalpana Chawla Excellence Awards 2012
Kalpana Chawla prole in India Currents 1998

EXTERNAL LINKS

11
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