Kalpana Chawla

Kalpana Chawla
Born	(1962-03-17)March 17, 1962 Karnal, Punjab, India (now in Haryana, India)
Died	February 1, 2003(2003-02-01) (aged 40) Aboard Space Shuttle Columbia over Texas, U.S.
Alma mater	Punjab Engineering College University of Texas at Arlington University of Colorado at Boulder
Time in space	31d 14h 54m
Selection	1994 NASA Group
Missions	STS-87, STS-107
Mission insignia
Awards

Kalpana Chawla (March 17, 1962 – February 1, 2003) was an Indo-American astronaut and the first woman of Indian origin 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 the seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

Kalpana Chawla was born on March 17, 1962. Her official date of birth was altered to 1 July 1961 to allow her to join school underage. While other children of her age dressed their Barbie dolls, Kalpana liked to draw pictures of airplanes. She was not always the top student in her class but had a very inquisitive mind. She moved to the United States in 1982 where she obtained the Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1984. Determined to become an astronaut even in the face of the Challenger disaster, Chawla went on to earn a second Masters in 1986 and a PhD in aerospace engineering in 1988 from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

In 1988, she began working at the NASA Ames Research Center, where she did Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) research on Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing concepts. In 1993, she joined Overset Methods, Inc. as Vice President and Research Scientist specializing in simulation of moving multiple body problems. Chawla held a Certificated Flight Instructor rating for airplanes, gliders and Commercial Pilot licenses for single and multi-engine airplanes, seaplanes and gliders. Becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen in April 1991, Chawla applied for the NASA Astronaut Corps. She joined the 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 traveled 10.67 million km, as many as 252 times around the Earth.