Kalpana Chawala

"She was a heroine. It takes enormous ability to become an astronaut. You need to know a lot about everything, from biology to astrophysics to aeronautical engineering. In this age of super-specialisation, you must have encyclopaedic knowledge to be an astronaut. Her achievement is awe-inspiring."

Early Life and Education

Born in Karnal, India, on March 17, 1962, Kalpana Chawla was the youngest of four children. As a child, Chawla developed an interest in flying after first seeing a plane at around the age of three. She spent days with her father visiting her local flying club with her father and showed an interest in aviation while at school. Kalpana Chawla said that she never dreamed, as a child in Karnal, that she would cross the frontiers of space. It was enough that her parents allowed her to attend engineering college after she graduated from Tagore School. After getting a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College, she moved to the United States in 1982 and obtained a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1984. She earned a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado in 1988.

Besides being an astronaut, she was licensed to fly single and multiengine land airplanes, single-engine seaplanes and gliders. She was also a certified flight instructor. After qualifying as a pilot, Kalpana began to consider another challenge: applying to NASA’s space shuttle program. She was first hired as a research scientist at NASA. After becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen in April 1991, Chawla had applied for the NASA Astronaut Corps. She joined the corps in March 1995 and was selected for her first flight in 1997.

Her first flight!

In 1997, Kalpana Chawla created history by becoming a part of the international crew aboard the U.S. Space Shuttle, Columbia, becoming the first woman born in India to go into space. Kalpana’s first space mission in the space shuttle, Columbia, was 15 days, 16 hours and 34 minutes long. During this time she went around the earth 252 times, travelling 10.45 million kilometres! The crew included a Japanese and a Ukranian astronaut. The crew performed experiments such as pollinating plants to observe food growth in space, and tests for making stronger metals and faster computer chips — all for a price tag of about 56 million dollars. After the completion of post-flight activities, Chawla was assigned to technical positions in the astronaut office to work on the space station. While traveling in the weightlessness of space, she said "You are just your intelligence."

The Tragic Mission

In 2001, 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. 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 left-wing of the orbiter. When Columbia re-entered the atmosphere of Earth, the damage allowed hot atmospheric gases to penetrate and destroy the internal wing structure, which caused the spacecraft to become unstable and break apart. In an unprecedented space tragedy, U.S. Space Shuttle Columbia, carrying India-born American astronaut Kalpana Chawla and six others, broke apart in flames as it streaked over Texas towards its landing strip on Saturday, 1 February 2003, killing all seven on board. This was Columbia’s 28th space flight and the shuttle was said to be good for 100 flights.

On the Saturday night when the news about the Columbia disaster broke, there was shock and disbelief. The town of Karnal spent a sleepless night as thousands of households stayed glued to their television sets in the hope that Kalpana and the crew had somehow survived. 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 41 months for crew rotation.

Honours and Recognitions

• NASA and independent groups both investigated the Columbia disaster in hopes of preventing another such tragedy. Examples include the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (2003) and NASA's Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report (released in 2008). Shortly after the Columbia disaster, scientists named seven asteroids after each crewmember as a "celestial memorial." To mark the first anniversary of the disaster, NASA also named seven hills on Mars for the lost crew. Asteroid 51826 Kalpana Chawla, is one of seven named after the Columbia's crew.


• 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".


• The University of Texas dedicated a Kalpana Chawla memorial at the Arlington College of Engineering in 2010. At the time of its opening, the display included a flight suit, photographs, information about Chawla's life, and a flag that was flown over the Johnson Space Center during a memorial for the Columbia astronauts


• In October 2020, a commercial cargo spacecraft named after Chawla launched to the International Space Station (ISS). Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus capsule was named the S.S. Kalpana Chawla, as it is the company’s policy to dedicate their Cygnus capsules to someone who has played a pivotal role in human spaceflight.

For millions of young Indians, the story of Kalpana Chawla, a girl from a small town who touched the skies, had become an inspiration. In a message that she sent from aboard the space shuttle, Columbia, to students of her college in Chandigarh, Kalpana said, “The path from dreams to success does exist. May you have the vision to find it, the courage to get onto it… . Wishing you a great journey.” There will surely be many who start off on this journey to fulfil their dreams.