Hyderabad: World Space Week is being observed from October 4-10 to celebrate the science and technology and the use of this technology for the welfare of mankind. In India, the event will be incomplete without the mention of Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian woman in space. Born in Karnal, Haryana on July 1, 1961, Chawla, the youngest of the four siblings first went into space in 1997 and become the second Indian person to fly in space after astronaut Rakesh Sharma.
After completing her Doctorate of philosophy in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado in 1988, she started working for NASA the same year. Selected by NASA in December 1994, Kalpana Chawla reported to the Johnson Space Center in March 1995 as an astronaut candidate. In January 1998, she was assigned as crew representative for shuttle and station flight crew equipment, and subsequently served as lead for Astronaut Office’s Crew Systems and Habitability section.
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She flew on STS-87 (1997) and STS-107 (2003) and has logged 30 days, 14 hours and 54 minutes in space. Kalpana Chawla died in 2003 in the Columbia space shuttle disaster. The shuttle disintegrated over Texas during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, 16 minutes prior to scheduled landing. As a student, Kalpana used to go to flying clubs for fun with her father.
During her stint at the flying clubs, she got interested in aeronautics and did aeronautical engineering from Punjab Engineering College. It is said that her teachers used to dissuade her from pursuing the course as there was not much scope in the field at the time. However, defying the teachers, Kalpana went by her instincts and traveled to the US to pursue research in the field.
Kalpana's did not confine her passion towards space science to herself only. After joining NASA, with the intention of instilling interest in space among the Indian youth, she used to select two students from the school she attended every year and make them tour NASA. Her research and determination to achieve everything is inspiring.
