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ACHIEVEMENTS OF KALPANA CHAWLA

KALPANA CHAWLA




The name Kalpana means "idea or imagination".
Kalpana Chawla was an Indo-American astronaut. She was the first Indian origin woman in space.
She was born on March 17, 1962 (Saturday) in Karnal which was then in the state ‘Punjab’ in India and now that is located in the state ‘Haryana’ in India. Her original date of birth was changed officially to July 01, 1961 (Saturday) to allow her to join the school underage. Her father’s name was Banarasi Lal Chawla and mother’s name was Sanjyothi Chawla. She has only one brother- Sanjay among all the three sisters Sunita, Deepa and herself Kalpana Chawla. She was the youngest of all and her nickname was Montu. In 1983, she was married to Jean-Pierre Harrison who was a flying instructor and an aviation author.
She did her schooling at Tagore Public School in Karnal. She holds a degree in aeronautical engineering from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh. In 1982, she went to US where obtained her master degree from the University of Texas in 1984. Then, she also finished a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado in 1988.
Career
Since 1988, she started to work at NASA’s Ames Research Center on power-lift Computational Fluid Dynamics. She holds a certified flight instructor rating for gliders, hydroplanes, airplanes and Commercial pilot Licenses for seaplanes and single & multi-engine airplanes.  She also holds a license of Technician Class Amateur Radio issued by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). After married to Jean-Pierre Harrison, she became a naturalized United State (US) citizen in 1991 and applied for the NASA Astronaut Corps. In 1993, she got a job in NASA as Vice-President and Research Scientist of Overset Methods Inc. In 1994, she had been selected as an astronaut candidate. She waited to become a part of the NASA’ Astronaut Corporations till 1995. In 1996, she worked as the mission specialist for prime robotic arm operator on STS-87.
First Space Mission


On November 19, 1997, she got an opportunity to travel around the Earth in the Space. The crew flew to space with her had six astronauts on the Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87. Kalpana Chawla created a history by travelling a distance of about 10.4 million miles revolving approx. 252 orbits of the earth in more than 372 hours (approx. 16 day) in space. During STS-87, Spartan satellite was deployed from the space shuttle. The Spartan satellite was malfunctioned due to software errors. NASA  investigated for five months and finally they fully exonerated Chawla by indentifying errors in software interfaces and the defined procedures of flight crew and ground control. After this satellite incident, she was assigned to a technical position.

Second Space Mission
In 2000, she again got an opportunity to travel around the earth as a mission specialist on STS-107. The mission was delayed due to scheduling conflicts and technical problems. Finally, it was launched on 16 January 2003. While the Shuttle Columbia re-entering the atmosphere of earth was collapsed over Texas and Louisiana region before touching the ground. Unfortunately, this accident ended the life of Kalpana Chawla along with six other crew members, they were:-
  1. Ilan Ramon (first Israeli astronaut)
  2. Willian McCool (pilot)
  3. M. Brown
  4. Michael P. Anderson
  5. Rick D. Husband
  6. Laurel B. Clark
Awards and Honors
The pride of India ‘Kalpana Chawla’ was awarded by the awards namely:-
  • Congressional Space Medal of Honor
  • NASA Space Flight Medal
  • NASA Distinguished Service Medal
Achievements
  • Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College (KCGMC) is located in Karnal, Haryana which has been named after the astronaut Kalpana Chawla.
  • In Delhi Technology University, Pondicherry University and Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), a girls’ hostel block is named after Chawla.
  • The Planetarium established by the Govt. of Haryana is also named after her.
  • A Dormitory in the University of Texas is also named as Kalpana Chawla Hall. 
       
Facts that may Amaze
  • Kalpana Chawla's husband Jean-Pierre Harrison was a flying instructor and an author who has written a book named ‘Principles of Helicopter Flight’ which was originally published on 1 August 1993. 
  • Kalpana Chawla’s family belonged to Pakistan who settled in Karnal after partition in1947.
  •  She was the first Indian origin woman and the second Indian person who flew in Space.
  • Chawla spent 30 days 14 hours and 54 minutes in space including her first mission to the space.
  • She said, “ When you look at the stars and the galaxy, you feel that you are not just from any particular piece of land, but from the solar system” on her first mission from the space.
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Location: New Delhi, Delhi 110019, India

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