Kalpana Chawla was the first female astronaut of the Indian origin who made her dream to venture into the space and become an inspiration for many out there. With her magnificent work she came up with something incredible for all the Indian women to feel proud of.

She passed away 14 ling years back, but still she is one of the well known names when it comes to inspiring women to do something out of the box. Kalpana was born in the Karnal village of Punjab and she fought all odds to reach to her destination which was somewhere in the sky into the starts. Here are a few of the details about this great lady who will keep inspiring many coming generations:

Early life

Kalpana Chavala was born in Karnal, Punjab on 17th March 1962. She was born in a middle class family and much like many other students she did her schooling from Tagore Baal Niketan Senior Secondary School, Karnal. Further, she completed her B.Tech degree in 1982, from Punjab Engineering College at Chandigarh in Aeronautical Engineering.

Her Journey in the US

Kalpana was a very ambitious student and she wanted to become a very successful astronaut. To make her dream come true, she decided to join NASA for which she moved to US in the year 1982. In the year 1984, she completed her master's degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington. Also, in 1986, she took up another master's degree! Later on in she also took up her doctorate degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Marriage

Kalpana got married in the year 1983 to Jean-Pierre Harrison who was an aviation author and a flying instructor. That was when her romantic journey began!

Her working Experience at NASA

Here dream of becoming a part of NASA, came out to be true in the year 1988 and she got an offer to work as the Vice President of Overset Methods, Inc at NASA Research Center. In the later years she was given the role to take up Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) research on Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing concepts.

Kalpna's commercial flight license

Kalpana Chavala had been certified with commercial pilot license for multi-engine, seaplanes, glider and aircraft. Also, she had got the certification of flight Instructor for airplanes and gliders. In the year 1991, she got the citizenship of US and thereafter she applied for the NASA Astronaut Corps. Finally in March 1995, she became a part of the corps. She got selected in 1996 for her first flight.

The story of her first Mission

It started on 19th November 1997! Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87, was flown by Kalpana and the six astronaut crew. In addition to being the first Indian origin woman to fly in the space, she is also the second person in India to achieve the same. She travelled to around 10.4 millions in the space, while taking up her first mission.

The story of her second mission

In her second mission, she was part of her the crew of STS-107 in the year 2000. But, there were many delays during her second mission that was because of the various technical issues and also the scheduling conflicts. Like in 2002, there a crack in the in the shuttle engine flow liners was found and due to that the flight was delayed. It was finally in the year 2003 dated January 16, that it got on the mission. As a part of her work on the mission she took up responsibility to do microgravity experiments and the crew had to conduct around 80 experiments for that. And, the study included safety and health of the astronaut, space science and advanced technology development.

Death

Along with her crew of seven members in the space shuttle, she succumbed to death on 1st of February 2003 in the Columbia disaster. This tragic incidence took place while the space shuttle was making reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. The tragedy occurred when the Space Shuttle disintegrated over Texas during its re-entry into the earth's atmosphere. The shuttle disintegrated while it was flying over Texas.

Awards and Accolades

All through her journey she was the one to receive, NASA Space Flight Medal, Congressional Space Medal of Honor and NASA Distinguished Service Medal. In the year 2003, after her death, the prime Minister of India announced to name MetSat, the meteorological series of satellites as Kalpana. The Government of Karnataka in the year 2004 instituted the Kalpana Chawla Award, to honor the young women scientists in India. NASA also has dedicated its supercomputer to Kalpana Chawala.