Amazon Quiz: First woman of Indian origin to go to space

Sunita williams

Kalpana Chawla

Bhawana Kanth

Zoya Aggarwal

Answer: Kalpana Chawla

The first woman of Indian descent to travel to space, Kalpana Chawla (17 March 1962 – 1 February 2003) was an American astronaut and mechanical engineer. As a mission specialist and principal robotic arm operator, she made her first space flight on the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997.

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Her second voyage took place on STS-107, Columbia’s final Space Shuttle mission in 2003. Chawla was one of the seven crew members who perished in the Columbia accident on 1 February 2003 when the spaceship exploded upon re-entering the atmosphere.

Chawla received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor posthumously, and various streets, colleges, and other organizations bear her name. In India, she is revered as a national hero.

On March 17, 1962, Kalpana Chawla was born in Karnal, Haryana. She received her education at Karnal’s Tagore Baal Niketan Senior Secondary School. To make her qualify for the matriculation exam, her family changed her date of birth from 1 July 1961 to March 17.

She migrated to the United States in 1982 and earned a Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1984 after earning a Bachelor of Engineering in Aeronautical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College in India.