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+Kalpana ChawlaLT

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Kalpana Chawla

NASA Astronaut

Born

July 1, 1961 Karnal, Haryana, India

Died

February 1, 2003(aged 41) Over Texas

Previous occupation

Research Scientist

Time in space

31days 14hours 54minutes

Selection

1994 NASA Group

Missions

STS-87, STS-107

Mission insignia

Awards

Kalpana Chawla (July 1, 1961 February 1, 2003) was an Indian-American astronaut who, was a mission specialist on the space shuttle Columbia. She first flew on the Columbia in 1997 as a mission specialist and primary robotic arm operator. Chawla was one of seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.[1]

Contents
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1 Early life 2 Education 3 NASA career 4 Death 5 Awards 6 Memorials 7 See also 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links

Early life
This section does not cite anyreferences or sources. Kalpana Chawla was born to a Hindu family in Karnal, Haryana, India on 1 July 1961 to Banarasi Lal Chawla and Sanjyothi. She had two sisters, Sunita and Deepa, and a brother, Sanjay. She became a US citizen in 1990. She was the youngest of four siblings in the family.

Education

This section does not cite anyreferences or sources. Chawla completed her earlier schooling at Tagore Public School, Karnal and her 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 Ph.D. 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.

NASA career
This section does not cite anyreferences or sources. Chawla joined the NASA 'Astronaut Corps' in March 1995 and was selected for her first flight in 1996. She spoke the following words while traveling in the weightlessness of space, "You are just your intelligence". She had traveled 10.4 million km, as many as 252 times around the Earth. Her first space mission began on November 19, 1997 as part of the six-astronaut crew that flew the Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87. Chawla was the first Indian-born woman and the second Indian person to fly in space, following cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma who flew in 1984 in a spacecraft. On her first mission Chawla traveled over 10.4 million miles in 252 orbits of the earth, logging more than 372 hours in space. During STS87, 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 fully exonerated Chawla by identifying errors in software interfaces and the defined procedures of 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, her performance in which was recognized with a special award from her peers.

Chawla in the space shuttle simulator in 2000 she 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 January 16, 2003, Chawla finally returned to space aboard Columbia on the illfated STS-107 mission. Chawla's responsibilities included the microgravity experiments, for which the crew conducted nearly 80 experiments studying earth and space science, advanced technology development, and astronaut health and safety.

Death
This section does not cite anyreferences or sources. Chawla died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster which occurred on February 1, 2003, when the Space Shuttle disintegrated over Texas during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, with the loss of all seven crew members, shortly before it was scheduled to conclude its 28th mission, STS-107.

Awards
Posthumously awarded:

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

Memorials

Kalpana Chawla ISU Scholarship fund founded by alumni of the International Space University (ISU) in 2010 to support Indian student participation in international space education programs. Kalpana Chawla International Space University Scholarship

Kalpana Chawla Memorial Scholarship program was instituted by Indian students association (ISA) at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in 2005 for meritorious graduate students.[2]

The Kalpana Chawla Outstanding Recent Alumni Award at the University of Colorado, given since 1983, was renamed for Kalpana Chawla.[3]

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 city which was announced by then Health Minister of India Dr. C. P. Thakur and later on promised by Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh. 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 to demonstrate that they continued to revere Kalpana Chawla as an outstanding astronaut.[4]

Haryana Government accepted the long pending demand of people of Karnal and now work to establish Kalapana Chawla Medical College in Karnal is in its first phase.

Asteroid 51826 Kalpanachawla, one of seven named after the Columbia's crew.[5] On February 5, 2003, India's Prime Minister announced that the meteorological series of satellites, "METSAT", will 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" is expected to be launched by 2007.[6]

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.[7]

Kalpana Chawla Award was instituted by the government of Karnataka in 2004 for young women scientists[8]

The girls hostel at Punjab Engineering College, is named after Kalpana Chawla. In addition, an award of INR twenty-five thousand, a medal, and a certificate is instituted for the best student in Aeronautical engineering department[9]

NASA has dedicated a super computer to Kalpana.[10] One of Florida Institute of Technology's student apartment complexes, Columbia Village Suites, has halls named after each of the astronauts, including Chawla and others

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, including Chawla Hill after Kalpana Chawla.

Steve Morse from the band Deep Purple created a song called "Contact Lost" in memory of the Columbia tragedy along with her interest in the band. The song can be found on the album Bananas.[11]

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."[12]

Kalpana Chawla Space Technology Cell, at IIT Kharagpur.

Novelist Peter David named a shuttlecraft, the Chawla, after the astronaut in his 2007 Star Trek novel, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Before Dishonor.[13]

Government of Haryana has made a Planetarium after her name called as Kalpana Chawla Planetarium in Jyotisar, Kurukshetra[14]

Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur started the Kalpana Chawla Space Technology Cell in her honor.[15][16]

Military housing development at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland has been named Columbia Colony. There is also a street named Chawla Way.

See also

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