Kalpana Chawla

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Kalpana Chawla bigraphy, stories - Astronaut

Kalpana Chawla : biography

March 17, 1962 – February 1, 2003

Kalpana Chawla (March 17, 1962 – February 1, 2003) was born in Karnal, India. She was the first Indian American astronaut and first Indian woman in space. She first flew on Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997 as a mission specialist and primary robotic arm operator. In 2003, Chawla was one of seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

Awards

Posthumously awarded:

  • Congressional Space Medal of Honor
  • NASA Space Flight Medal
  • NASA Distinguished Service Medal

Education

Chawla completed her earlier schooling at Tagore Baal Niketan School,Karnal. She was underage and to enable her to enroll in school, her date of birth was changed to July 1, 1961. She completed Bachelor of Engineering degree in Aeronautical Engineering at Punjab Engineering College at Chandigarh in 1982. She moved to the United States in 1982 and obtained a M.S. degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1984. Chawla went on to earn a second M.S. degree in 1986 and a PhD in aerospace engineering in 1988 from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Later that year she began working at the NASA Ames Research Center as vice president of Overset Methods, Inc. where she did CFD research on Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing concepts. Chawla held a Certificated Flight Instructor rating for airplanes, gliders and Commercial Pilot licenses for single and multi-engine airplanes, seaplanes and gliders.

Memorials

  • On 18 November 2012, in Karnal city, Haryana, India, Chawla’s birthplace and first home town, the foundation stone of the Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College was laid by the Haryana Government in her memory.
  • The Kalpana Chawla ISU Scholarship fund was founded by alumni of the International Space University (ISU) in 2010 to support Indian student participation in international space education programs.
  • 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.
  • The Kalpana Chawla Outstanding Recent Alumni Award at the University of Colorado, given since 1983, was renamed for Kalpana Chawla.
  • In Karnal city, India, at least 30,000 schoolchildren and citizens joined hands to make a 36.4-km-long human chain to support the demand for a Kalpana Chawla medical college in the Karnal city, which was announced by then Health Minister of India Dr. C. P. Thakur and later promised by Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh. The Kalpana Chawla Medical College Nirman Committee, backed by volunteers and activists of various organizations, supported by students from 34 schools, swarmed the roads and formed a chain along the roads in Karnal city to demonstrate that they continued to revere Kalpana Chawla as an outstanding astronaut.
  • Asteroid 51826 Kalpanachawla, one of seven named after the Columbia’s crew.
  • On February 5, 2003, India’s Prime Minister announced that the meteorological series of satellites, METSAT, was to be renamed as "KALPANA". The first satellite of the series, "METSAT-1", launched by India on September 12, 2002, will be now known as "KALPANA-1". "KALPANA-2" was expected to be launched by 2007.
  • 74th Street in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City has been renamed 74th Street Kalpana Chawla Way in her honor.
  • The University of Texas at Arlington (where Chawla obtained a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering in 1984) opened a dormitory named in her honor, Kalpana Chawla Hall, in 2004.
  • The Kalpana Chawla Award was instituted by the government of Karnataka in 2004 for young women scientists.
  • The girls’ hostel 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.
  • NASA has dedicated a supercomputer to Chawla.
  • 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 along with her interest in the band. The song can be found on the album Bananas.
  • Her brother, Sanjay Chawla, remarked "To me, my sister is not dead. She is immortal. Isn’t that what a star is? She is a permanent star in the sky. She will always be up there where she belongs."
  • Novelist Peter David named a shuttlecraft, the Chawla, after the astronaut in his 2007 Star Trek novel, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Before Dishonor.David, Peter; Star Trek: Next Generation: Before Dishonor; Page 24.
  • The University of Texas at Arlington dedicated the Kalpana Chawla Memorial on May 3, 2010 in Nedderman Hall, one of the primary buildings in the College of Engineering.
  • The Government of Haryana established the Kalpana Chawla Planetarium in Jyotisar, Kurukshetra.
  • The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, named the Kalpana Chawla Space Technology Cell in her honor.
  • A military housing development at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, has been named Columbia Colony, and there is a street named Chawla Way.