Kalpana Chawla facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Kalpana Chawla
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| Born | March 17, 1962 |
| Died | February 1, 2003 (aged 40) Aboard Space Shuttle Columbia over Texas, U.S.
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| Alma mater | Punjab Engineering College (BE) University of Texas at Arlington (MS) University of Colorado at Boulder (MS, PhD) |
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Time in space
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31 days, 14 hours, 54 minutes |
| Selection | 1994 NASA Group |
| Missions | STS-87, STS-107 |
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Mission insignia
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Kalpana Chawla (born March 17, 1962 – died February 1, 2003) was an amazing American astronaut and engineer. She was the first woman from India to travel into space.
Kalpana first flew into space in 1997 aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. She worked as a mission specialist and helped operate the shuttle's robotic arm. Sadly, in 2003, Kalpana and six other crew members died when the Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart during its return to Earth. She was honored with the Congressional Space Medal of Honor after her death. Many places, like streets and universities, are named after her. In India, she is seen as a national hero.
Contents
Early Life: Growing Up and Learning
Kalpana Chawla was born on March 17, 1962, in Karnal, a city in Haryana, India. Her family had moved to Karnal after the Partition of India. When she was a child, Kalpana loved airplanes and dreamed of flying. She often went with her father to local flying clubs to watch planes.
She once said that she and her siblings would ask their dad for a ride in the planes. He would take them to the flying club, and they even got to ride in a small plane called a Pushpak and a glider.
In 1976, Kalpana finished school at Tagore School, where she was a very good student. She earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College in India. In 1982, she moved to the United States. There, she earned a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1984. Kalpana continued her studies, earning another Master's degree in 1986 and a PhD in aerospace engineering in 1988 from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Kalpana Chawla was married to Jean-Pierre Harrison.
Becoming an Astronaut: Kalpana's Journey to NASA
In 1988, Kalpana started working at the NASA Ames Research Center. She researched how air moves around aircraft that can take off and land vertically or in short distances (called V/STOL). Her work was published in many science papers.
In 1993, she joined a company called Overset Methods, Inc. There, she was a Vice President and research scientist. She focused on computer simulations of objects moving together. Kalpana was also a skilled pilot. She had licenses to fly airplanes, gliders, and seaplanes.
After becoming a U.S. citizen in 1991, Kalpana applied to become a NASA astronaut. She was accepted into the astronaut program in March 1995. In 1996, she was chosen for her first space mission.
First Space Mission: STS-87
Kalpana's first trip to space began on November 19, 1997. She was one of six astronauts on the Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87. This made her the first Indian woman to fly in space. While floating in space, she famously said, "You are just your intelligence."
On this mission, Kalpana traveled over 10.4 million miles (16.7 million km). She orbited Earth 252 times and spent more than 15 days in space. During STS-87, she was in charge of releasing a satellite called Spartan. The satellite had a problem, and two other astronauts had to go on a spacewalk to get it back. NASA investigated the issue and found that Kalpana was not at fault. After this mission, she worked on projects for the International Space Station.
Second Space Mission: STS-107
In 2001, Kalpana was chosen for her second space flight, STS-107. This mission was delayed several times due to technical issues. Finally, on January 16, 2003, Kalpana returned to space aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia for the ill-fated STS-107 mission.
The crew performed nearly 80 experiments during their time in space. These experiments studied Earth, space, new technologies, and astronaut health. During the launch of STS-107, a piece of foam insulation broke off the shuttle's external tank. It hit the left wing of the orbiter. Some engineers thought the damage might be serious. However, NASA managers decided that the crew could not fix the problem in space, so they limited the investigation.
When Columbia re-entered Earth's atmosphere, the damage allowed hot gases to get inside the wing. This destroyed the wing's structure, causing the spacecraft to become unstable and break apart. After this disaster, Space Shuttle flights were stopped for more than two years. The construction of the International Space Station was also paused.
Death
Kalpana Chawla died on February 1, 2003. She and the six other crew members were killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. The shuttle broke apart over Texas as it was returning to Earth. This happened just before it was supposed to land, ending its 28th mission, STS-107.
Kalpana's remains were identified, along with those of the other crew members. She was cremated, and her ashes were scattered at Zion National Park in Utah, as she had wished.
Honors and Recognition
Kalpana Chawla has been honored in many ways for her contributions to space exploration:
- A U.S. mission and a U.S. spacecraft were named after Kalpana Chawla.
- An Asteroid called 51826 Kalpana chawla was named after her. It is one of seven asteroids named after the Columbia crew.
- In 2003, the Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, announced that India's weather satellite series, MetSat, would be renamed "Kalpana." The first satellite in the series, "MetSat-1," launched in 2002, was renamed "Kalpana-1."
- A street in "Little India" in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City, was renamed "Kalpana Chawla Way."
- The Government of Karnataka in India created the Kalpana Chawla Award in 2004. This award recognizes young women scientists.
- NASA has dedicated a supercomputer to Kalpana Chawla.
- One of Florida Institute of Technology's student apartment buildings has halls named after each of the Columbia astronauts, including Kalpana.
- The NASA Mars Exploration Rover mission named seven peaks in a chain of hills on Mars, called the Columbia Hills, after the seven astronauts lost in the Columbia disaster. One of these is Chawla Hill.
- Steve Morse from the band Deep Purple wrote a song called "Contact Lost" in memory of the Columbia tragedy. Kalpana was a fan of the band.
- The novelist Peter David named a shuttlecraft in his 2007 Star Trek novel, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Before Dishonor, the Chawla.
- The Kalpana Chawla ISU Scholarship fund was started in 2010. It helps Indian women participate in international space education programs.
- The Kalpana Chawla Memorial Scholarship program was created in 2005 at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). It is for excellent graduate students.
- The Kalpana Chawla Outstanding Recent Alumni Award at the University of Colorado was renamed after her.
- The University of Texas at Arlington, where Kalpana earned her Master's degree, opened a dormitory named Kalpana Chawla Hall in 2004. The university also dedicated the Kalpana Chawla Memorial in 2010.
- The girls' hostel at Punjab Engineering College is named after Kalpana. An award of twenty-five thousand rupees, a medal, and a certificate is given to the best student in the Aeronautical Engineering department there.
- 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.
- Delhi Technological University named a girls' hostel block after Kalpana.
- A military housing area at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, is called Columbia Colony and has a street named Chawla Way.
- A hostel block at Pondicherry University has been named after Kalpana Chawla.
- Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College (KCGMC) in Karnal, Haryana, India, is named after her.
- The Kalpana One Space Settlement is named in her honor.
- A Cygnus spacecraft that delivers supplies to the ISS was named the "S.S. Kalpana Chawla" after her.
See also
In Spanish: Kalpana Chawla para niños
