Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian-born woman astronaut who continues to be an inspirational force, was born in the small Indian town of Karnal on March 17, 1961. Fascinated by outer space from a young age, Chawla did her Bachelor of Engineering in Aeronautical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College in 1982 and then went to the United States for higher education.

Also read: After 18 years of her death, looking back at the life of Kalpana Chawla

There, she did her master’s and PhD and started working at the NASA Ames Research Centre in 1988 and was on board not one, but two space missions.

On her birth anniversary, here is a look back at her achievements

1) Made two trips to the outer space

In November 1999, Chawla scripted history by becoming the first India-born woman in space. She was a part of space flight STS-87 that made 252 orbits of the Earth in a forthnight.

She got another opportunity to get back to space in 2003 as a part of space flight STS-107. But the ill-fated flight disintegrated over Texas during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, killing Chawla and the six other crew members.

2) Congressional Space Medal of Honor

Honouring Chawla’s extraordinary achievements, former US president George W Bush presented her with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, posthumously, in 2004. She, thus, became the 17th recipient of the honour, which was first awarded to Neil Armstrong in 1978.

3) NASA’s Distinguished Service Medal

She was posthumously awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 2004.  

4) Indian satellites named after her

Four days after Chawla’s untimely death on February 1, 2003, the then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced during a condolence meeting in the Parliament that India’s meteorological series of satellites, METSAT, would be named KALPANA.

The first of the series, METSAT-1, launched on September 12, 2002 and was renamed as KALPANA-1.

5) Asteroids, universities, awards named after her

‘51826 Kalpanachawla’ is the astronaut named after the Indian-American astronaut. In 2003, a New York street was named the ‘Kalpana Chawla way’.

Also read: US global aerospace company names spacecraft after late Indian-American astronaut Kalpana Chawla

The Kalpana Chawla ISU Scholarship fund was founded by the alumni of 

 the International Space University (ISU) in 2010 to support Indian women’s participation in international space education programs.  

The Haryana government in 2007 established the Kalpana Chawla Planetarium in Kurukshetra.

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

The Kalpana Chawla Outstanding Recent Alumni Award is given by the University of Colorado since 1983 and was renamed after Chawla