Kalpana Chawla (17 March 1962 – 1 February 2003)[2] was an Indian-born American
astronaut and aerospace
engineer who was the first woman of Indian origin to fly to space.[3][4] She first flew on
Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997 as a mission specialist and primary
robotic arm operator aboard
STS-87.[5]
Chawla's second flight was on
STS-107, the final flight of Columbia, in 2003. She was one of the seven crew members who died in the
Space Shuttle Columbia disaster when the spacecraft disintegrated during its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere on 1 February 2003.[6] Chawla was posthumously awarded the
Congressional Space Medal of Honor,[7] and several streets, universities, and institutions are named in her honor.[8][9][10]
Early life and education
Kalpana Chawla was born on 17 March 1962 in a
Punjabi Hindu family in
Karnal,
Haryana.[11][12] She was born into a conservative society however she broke several traditions to become the first Indian-born female
astronaut. She completed her schooling from Tagore Baal Niketan Senior Secondary School, Karnal. Growing up, Chawla went to local flying clubs and watched planes with her father.[13] After graduating with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Aeronautical Engineering from
Punjab Engineering College, India, Chawla moved to the United States in 1982. In 1984, she graduated with a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the
University of Texas at Arlington,[14] and went on to earn a second Master's in 1986 and a
PhD[15] in
aerospace engineering in 1988 from the
University of Colorado Boulder.[16][17]
Career
In 1988, Chawla joined NASA's
Ames Research Center, where she initially conducted
computational fluid dynamics research on
vertical and/or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) concepts. Much of Chawla's research is included in technical journals and conference papers. In 1993, she joined Overset Methods, Inc. as vice president and Research Scientist specializing in simulation of moving multiple body problems. Chawla held a Certified
Flight Instructor rating for airplanes, gliders and Commercial Pilot licenses for single and multi-engine airplanes, seaplanes and gliders. After becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen in April 1991, she applied for the
NASA Astronaut Corps.[18] Chawla joined the corps in March 1995 and was selected for her first flight in 1997.
First space mission of Kalpana Chawla
Chawla's first space mission began on 19 November 1997, as part of the six-astronaut crew that flew the
Space Shuttle Columbia flight
STS-87. Chawla was the first Indian woman to go in space. She spoke the following words while traveling in the weightlessness of space: "You are just your intelligence." Chawla had traveled 10.67 million km, as many as 252 times around the Earth. On her first mission, Chawla travelled 10.4/6.5 million miles in 252 orbits of the Earth, logging more than 376 hours (15 days and 16 hours) in space.[19][7] During STS-87, she was responsible for deploying the Spartan Satellite which malfunctioned, necessitating a spacewalk by
Winston Scott and
Takao Doi to capture the satellite. A five-month NASA investigation exonerated[20] Chawla by identifying errors in software interfaces[21] and the defined procedures of the flight crew and ground control. After the completion of
STS-87 post-flight activities, Chawla was assigned to technical positions in the astronaut office to work on the space station.
In 2000, Chawla was selected for her second flight as part of the crew of
STS-107. This mission was repeatedly delayed due to scheduling conflicts and technical problems such as the July 2002 discovery of cracks in the shuttle engine flow liners. On 16 January 2003, Chawla finally returned to space aboard
Space Shuttle Columbia on the
ill-fated STS-107 mission. The crew performed nearly 80 experiments studying Earth and
space science, advanced technology development, and astronaut health and safety.
During the launch of
STS-107, Columbia's 28th mission, a piece of foam insulation broke off from the
Space Shuttle external tank and struck the
port wing of the
orbiter. Previous shuttle launches had seen minor damage from foam shedding,[22] but some engineers suspected that the damage to Columbia was more serious.
NASA managers limited the investigation, reasoning that the crew could not have fixed the problem if it had been confirmed.[23]
When Columbiare-entered the
atmosphere of Earth on 1 February 2003, the damage allowed hot atmospheric gases to penetrate and destroy the internal wing structure, which caused the spacecraft to become unstable and break apart over
Texas.[24] Chawla died along with the other six crew members.[25] After the disaster, Space Shuttle flight operations were suspended for more than two years, similar to the aftermath of the
Challenger disaster. Construction of the
International Space Station (ISS) was put on hold; the station relied entirely on the Russian
Roscosmos State Corporation for resupply for 29 months until Shuttle flights resumed with
STS-114 and 45 months for crew rotation.
Chawla's remains were identified along with those of the rest of the crew members and were cremated and scattered at
Zion National Park in
Utah in accordance with her wishes.[26]
The lunar crater Chawla is named after Kalpana Chawla.[31]
On 5 February 2003, the
Prime Minister of India at the time,
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, announced that a meteorological series of satellites, MetSat, was to be renamed "
Kalpana 1". The first satellite of the series, "MetSat-1", launched by India on 12 September 2002, was renamed "
Kalpana-1".[32]
One of
Florida Institute of Technology's student apartment complexes, Columbia Village Suites, has halls named after each of the astronauts, including Chawla.
The NASA
Mars Exploration Rover mission has named seven peaks in a chain of hills, named the
Columbia Hills, after each of the seven astronauts lost in the Columbia shuttle disaster. One of them is Chawla Hill, named after Chawla.
Steve Morse from the band
Deep Purple created the song "Contact Lost" in memory of the Columbia tragedy. Chawla knew Morse and took the band's Machine Head, featuring the song "Space Truckin'" with her on the mission. Morse's tribute song can be found on the album Bananas.[35]
Novelist
Peter David named a
shuttlecraft, the Chawla, after the astronaut in his 2007 Star Trek novel, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Before Dishonor.[36]
The Kalpana Chawla ISU Scholarship fund was founded by alumni of the
International Space University (ISU) in 2010 to support Indian women's participation in international space education programs.[37]
The Kalpana Chawla Memorial Scholarship program was instituted by the Indian Students Association (ISA) at the
University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in 2005 for meritorious graduate students.[38]
The Kalpana Chawla Outstanding Recent Alumni Award at the
University of Colorado, given since 1983, was renamed after Chawla.[39]
The
University of Texas at Arlington, where Chawla obtained a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering in 1984, opened a
dormitory named Kalpana Chawla Hall in 2004.[40] In addition, the university dedicated the Kalpana Chawla Memorial on 3 May 2010, in
Nedderman Hall, one of the primary buildings in the
College of Engineering.[41]
The girls' hostel (what a university dormitory is called in India) at
Punjab Engineering College is named after Chawla. In addition, an award of
INR twenty-five thousand, a medal, and a certificate is instituted for the best student in the Aeronautical Engineering department.[42]
On 1 April 2022, a satellite named after Chawla (
ÑuSat 24 or "Kalpana", COSPAR 2022-033X) was launched into space as part of the
Satellogic Aleph-1 constellation.
Private life
On 2 December 1983, Kalpana Chawla was married to Jean-Pierre Harrison at the age of 21.[16] After the
Columbia disaster, Harrison was approached by
filmmakers to make a movie on Chawla's life, but he refused because he prefers to keep their life private.[47]
In popular culture
Mega Icons (2018–2020), an Indian
documentary television series on
National Geographic about prominent Indian personalities, dedicated an episode to Chawla's achievements.[48] In the 2023 movie "A Million Miles Away" about Mexican farmworker turned astronaut Jose Hernandez, Kalpana Chawla is played by actress Sarayu Blue.
^Salim Rizvi (11 December 2006).
"Indo-US astronaut follows Kalpana's footsteps". New York:
BBC. Retrieved 20 November 2012. Almost four years after the death of the first American astronaut Kalpana Chawla in the Columbia space shuttle disaster, Nasa has sent another woman of Indian origin into space.
^Leinbach, Michael D.; Ward, Jonathan H. (23 January 2018). "Chapter 12: Healing and Closure". Bringing Columbia home: the untold story of a lost space shuttle and her crew.
New York:
Arcade Publishing.
ISBN978-1-62872-852-1. A a few days later a memorial service was held for Kalpana Chawla at Zion National Monument in Utah, one of her favorite places