Kalpana Chawla's Birth Anniversary: Remembering 1st woman of Indian origin to go to space

Late Kalpana Chawla, the first woman astronaut of Indian origin, was born in the Karnal district of Haryana on March 17, 1962. She became a naturalised US citizen in April 1991 and then applied for the NASA  Astronaut Corps as she had a strong interest in aircraft and space. As part of the STS-87 crew of six astronauts, Chawla's first space mission took place on November 18, 1997. She signed up for her second space mission in 2001 when she got selected for the STS-107 crew. 

Kalpana Chawla is the first woman of Indian origin to venture into space

Kalpana completed her primary and secondary education from Tagore Baal Niketan School, in Karnal. After that, she went to Punjab Engineering College to complete an aeronautical engineering degree. Kalpana began working at NASA Ames Research Center after receiving her PhD in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1988.  Her duties in NASA revolved around the development of robotic situational awareness displays and testing space shuttle control software.

Kalpana had made several motivational speeches for the young women and motivated them to pursue science. She had said, "The path from dreams to success is decided, but do you have the desire to find it? Have the courage to walk that path to get it? Are you fully determined to achieve your dreams? If you have a dream then try to make it come true. It doesn't even matter that you are a woman or you are from India or somewhere else."

I am made for space only: Kalpana Chawla

Kalpana was so passionate about space that in one of her interviews, she had said, "I am made for space only. Every moment is spent for space and I will die for it." Kalpana died on February 1, 2003, 16 minutes before the scheduled landing, when the Space Shuttle Columbia STS-107 crashed during entry over the southern United States. Kalpana Chawla had logged in 30 days, 14 hours and 54 minutes in space - a month.

Kalpana Chawla was married to American pilot Jean-Pierre Harrison. Kalpana and Harrison met during their air training and later tied the knot. Jean wrote a biography on Kalpana Chawala, titled Edge of Time. In the book, despite her humble background, Kalpana's passion and ambition to move forward is well described. In addition, the author also spoke on aspects of Kalpana's personal life.