- first Indian born woman to go to space
- awarded the “Congressional Space Medal of Honor”
Born in 1972, Kalpana Chawla was an engineer and astronaut. As a child, she was always amazed by planes and flying. This probably motivated her to become an astronaut. Chawla got her bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering from Punjab Engineering College and later got her master's degree from the University of Texas. She earned a doctorate at the University of Colorado in aerospace engineering.
Chawla was recruited at NASA in 1994 to work at the Johnson Space Center, and she went on two space missions. STS-87 Columbia was her first mission, and the flight was around 376 hours and traveled 6.5 million miles. Her second mission was the infamous “STS-107 Columbia Disaster”. This 16-day mission was a science and research mission, and the crew held 80 experiments. When reentering the Earth’s atmosphere, the space shuttle broke apart and killed all seven members of the mission on February 1, 2003.
Kalpana Chawla was the first Indian born woman to go to space, where she spent a total of 31 days, 14 hours, and 54 minutes. The University of Texas held a memorial for Chawla at the Arlington College of Engineering in 2010. There have been many documentaries to share the stories of Chawla and the other six crew members that lost their lives like “Astronaut Dairies: Remembering the Columbia Shuttle Crew”. She was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 2004. Kalpana Chawla’s legacy should never be forgotten, and we will continue to remember her for the national hero that she is.
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