A look into life of Kalpana Chawla, first Indian-origin woman to fly to space

Kalpana Chawla, Indian-American astronaut who was the first Indian-origin woman who went to space, was born on March 17, 1962 in Haryana’s Karnal. Chawla was honoured with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 2004. 

Its been 18 years since Chawla met her end on February 1, 2003. As just minutes before re-entering into the Earth’s atmosphere, the spaceship that carried her and seven other astronauts disintegrated, leading to the death of all the people on board.

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Born in 1962, Kalpana Chawla was 20-year-old when she moved to the United States from Haryana to obtain a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering. In 1988, she started working at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the space agency of the US.

Later in 1994, she was chosen by NASA to be a part of the 15th Group of Astronauts. Finally, it was in 1996, that she was chosen to be the mission specialist on the spaceship STS-87. Later in 2003, she was also a part of the mission on the STS-107 space shuttle mission. In that 16-day mission, 80 experiments were conducted by the on-board astronauts.

Only 16 minutes before their spaceship was scheduled to land back on Earth, the disaster happened, killing all the astronauts. Kalpana Chawla remained the only woman to go to space until 2006 when Sunita William not only went to space but also recorded the most spacewalk for a woman.

Also Read: NASA launches SS Kalpana Chawla Cygnus spacecraft bound for International Space Station

Today, although Kalpana Chawla is not there with us anymore, the idea of her excellent achievement stays with us, continuing to encourage young people from developing countries to work towards their passion.