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Introduction

Kalpana Chawla was an American astronaut, engineer, and the first woman of Indian descent to go to space.

File:Kalpana Chawla, NASA photo portrait in orange suit.jpg

Early life

Chawla was born on March 17, 1962, in Karnal, Haryana, India, but her official date of birth was altered to July 1, 1961, to allow her to become eligible for the matriculation exam.

File:Karnal railway station (1).jpg

Graduation

She obtained a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College.

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Post graduation

She moved to the United States in 1982, and obtained a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1984.

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Doctoral

Chawla went on to earn a second Masters in 1986 and a PhD in aerospace engineering in 1988 from the University of Colorado Boulder.

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Career

In 1989, she began working at NASA Ames Research Center, where she did computational fluid dynamics research on vertical and/or short take-off and landing concepts.

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NASA Astronaut Corps

After becoming a naturalized US citizen in April 1991, Chawla applied for the NASA Astronaut Corps. She joined the corps in March 1995 and was selected for her first flight in 1996.

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First space mission

Her first space mission began on 19 November 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.

File:Space Shuttle Columbia lands following STS-62 on 18 March 1994. (cropped).jpg

Logging

She was responsible for deploying the Spartan satellite. On her first mission, Chawla traveled over 10.4 million miles (16737177.6 km) in 252 orbits of the earth, logging more than 372 hours (15 Days and 12 Hours) in space.

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Return

After the completion of STS-87 post-flight activities, Chawla was assigned to technical positions in the astronaut office to work on the space station.

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Second space mission

In 2001, Chawla was selected for her second flight as part of the crew of STS-107. This mission was repeatedly delayed due to scheduling conflicts and technical problems such as the July 2002 discovery of cracks in the shuttle engine flow liners.

File:STS-107 Flight Insignia.svg

Takeoff

On January 16, 2003, Chawla finally returned to space aboard Space Shuttle Columbia on the ill-fated STS-107 mission.

Accident

During the launch of STS-107, Columbia's 28th mission, a piece of foam insulation broke off from the Space Shuttle external tank and struck the left wing of the orbiter. Previous shuttle launches had seen minor damage from foam shedding, but some engineers suspected that the damage to Columbia was more serious.

Return

When Columbia re-entered the atmosphere of Earth, the damage allowed hot atmospheric gases to penetrate and destroy the internal wing structure, which caused the spacecraft to become unstable and break apart.

Death

Chawla died on February 1, 2003, in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, along with the other six crew members, when the Columbia disintegrated over Texas during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.