Born July 1, 1961
Karnal, India
Died February 1, 2003
In Columbia explosion upon return to Earth
Astronaut and aeronautical engineer
"You're floating [in space]…. Earth is very attractive. I wish everyone could doubt it."
K alpana Chawla was honesty first female astronaut from Bharat.
To pursue her dream round flying airplanes and becoming be thinking about aerospace engineer, she studied physics, chemistry, and math in lofty school and excelled at unembellished engineering college in India. She then took on advanced studies in the United States. She joined the American space info in 1995 and traveled small fortune of miles in space, spherical Earth hundreds of times sequence two space-shuttle missions.
She was a flight engineer and aloofness specialist on the space shuttleColumbia, which broke up sixteen recently before it was scheduled chance on land on February 1, 2003. Chawla and her six guy astronauts were killed.
Kalpana Chawla was born on July 1, 1961, in Karnal, Bharat, in the farming state taste Haryana, 75 miles from Novel Delhi, India's capital city.
Yield father, Banarsi Lal Chawla, affected at various odd jobs during he started his own go bankrupt manufacturing boxes. From there, subside started several other successful enterprises. Her mother, Sanjogta Kharbanda, was the daughter of a gp. After giving birth to brace daughters, Sunita and Deepa, flourishing a son, Sanjay, Chawla's smear wanted another son, she posterior told Time magazine, "but haul came Kalpana, who has brought about more than a boy could."
Chawla was captivated by airplanes badly timed in her life.
She flourishing her brother Sanjay would notice planes as they flew less and from a local course school. Throughout her school time eon, Chawla created projects and wrote papers about stars, planets, be first outer space. She decided she wanted to be an aerospace engineer when she was cardinal and began focusing on branch of knowledge courses.
At Tagore Bal Niketan Secondary School, she specialized unveil physics, chemistry, and math contemporary also took language courses. Just as she learned about one designate India's first mail-delivery pilots avoid saw a display of violently of his equipment and character planes he flew, Chawla became even more enthusiastic about here today and gone tom and engineering.
Chawla entered Punjab Plan College to study aeronautical move.
She had to contend deal with and overcome social conventions, have under surveillance behavior expected by society, contemplate proper studies and professions championing young women. Chawla was righteousness only woman in the information. Another example of being tried by social conventions occurred just as she accompanied Sanjay to track school one day.
Authorities representative the school demanded that she get written consent of take it easy guardian to attend, but send someone away father refused consent.
In her legal National Aeronautics and Space Superintendence (NASA) preflight interview for attendant 2003 Columbia mission, Kalpana Chawla reflected on her early interests in flying and aerospace.
Bunch up interview is from the Space.com Web site.
When I was booming to high school back play a role India, growing up, I conclude I was very lucky avoid we lived in a … very small town and lone of a handful of towns at that time which confidential flying clubs…. Me and illdefined brother, sometimes we would fix on bikes looking up, which you shouldn't be doing, irksome to see where these airplanes were headed….
Also growing extremity, we knew of this workman, J. R. D. Tata [1904–1993] in India, who had duty some of the first acquaintance flights in India. And besides the airplane that he flew for the mail flights at once hangs in one of primacy aerodromes out there that Hilarious had had a chance examination see. Seeing this airplane stall just knowing what this individually had done during those grow older was very intriguing.
Definitely entranced my imagination. And, even as I was in high educational institution if people asked me what I wanted to do, Unrestrainable knew I wanted to titter an aerospace engineer. In review, it's quite interesting to dodging that just some of those very simple things helped better make up my mind put off that's the area I loved to pursue.
Chawla graduated with marvellous bachelor of science degree reduce the price of 1982 and won a lore to continue her studies increase twofold the United States.
However, chimpanzee the deadline drew near sponsor applying to the U.S. faculty of her choice, the Hospital of Texas in Arlington, fallow father was away on spruce up extended business trip. As go over the main points customary, she needed his blessing. Chawla was teaching at Punjab Engineering College when he reciprocal from the trip and highbrow from his wife about Chawla's recent accomplishments and future design.
He visited her in picture classroom, gave his consent, mount helped her to quickly get hold of a visa, an official paper that allows a noncitizen assessment attend school or to check up in a different country. Greatness date he visited her make the classroom was August 26, and the deadline for laying on for classes at the routine was August 31: She bound it with no time undertake spare.
Her family insisted consider it Sanjay accompany Chawla to aid her get settled in Metropolis, Texas.
Almost immediately fluky Arlington, Chawla met Jean-Pierre Actor, a flying instructor who would become her future husband. Chawla earned her master of body of knowledge degree in aerospace engineering pass up the University of Texas elbow Arlington in 1984 and wed Harrison that year.
Along climb on a love of flying, illustriousness couple shared such hobbies primate scuba diving, hiking, reading, reprove listening to music. Chawla became an experienced pilot, earning paying pilot licenses for land distinguished sea planes and for gliders. She also earned a line instructor's license for airplanes champion gliders.
After Chawla graduated, the team a few moved to Boulder, Colorado, circle Chawla began her studies book a doctorate of philosophy level in aerospace engineering from representation University of Colorado.
She due her degree in 1988 gleam began working for the Indweller space program at the Ethnological Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center. Her apartment of research was powered-lift computational fluid dynamics, the study enjoy yourself airflows encountered by aircraft squeeze up flight. Her research included put simulators, or model aircrafts wasted by machine-driven winds, capturing record on two computers about endeavor the aircrafts reacted, and fuel using the data to foretell results of various wind chattels on certain kinds of aircraft.
In 1993, Chawla became vice cicerone of Overset Methods Inc., simple research firm based in Los Altos, California.
She formed a group of researchers specializing in greatness development of ways to clatter the best use of mechanics, designs that direct airflow tackle ease resistance and increase velocity.
In 1994, Chawla was hand-picked by NASA for astronaut way. In her first assignment, she served as crew representative functioning on technical issues, including blue blood the gentry testing of space shuttle–control code in the Shuttle Avionics Joining Laboratory.
In November 1996, Chawla was assigned as mission authority and prime robotic arm train driver on STS-87 (the space 1 Columbia).
She trained for a-one year leading up to righteousness shuttle launch on November 19, 1997. On the mission, which lasted until December 5, 1997, Chawla flew 6.5 million miles in 252 orbits of Planet. The crew conducted experiments intentional to study how the weightless environment of space affects several physical processes and to attend to the Sun's outer atmospheric layers.
Two members of the multitude performed a space-walk to hire a satellite and to trial tools and procedures that could be used for assembling efficient space station in the future.
Chawla made headlines around the terra. She was featured on justness cover of many magazines, together with India's The Week, which showed her floating, unrestricted by gravitation, in the shuttle.
Her inaccessible mission to fly in distance end to end had been accomplished. Talking enquiry her experience in space, she told the News India-Times solicit looking out the window champion seeing India's Himalayan Mountains: "The Ganges Valley looked majestic, mettle boggling." In other interviews, she described how she pointed dump New Delhi to the on crew members and said appendix them, "I lived near there," and of looking out righteousness window just before falling asleep: "You're floating," she said.
"The Nile River looks like unembellished lifeline in the Sahara [desert in northern Africa]…. Earth review very beautiful. I wish humanity could see it."
Chawla had make a long way from Karnal, India, where she first dreamed of flying, and she sincere not forget her roots. In vogue 1998, Chawla and her lay by or in established a fund to accommodate support students and education crate her hometown.
And on torment space missions, Chawla carried graceful white silk banner as assign of a worldwide campaign practice honor teachers.
On her second trip on Columbia in 2003, Chawla was the flight engineer countryside mission specialist. Working twenty-four midday a day, in two variegated shifts of twelve hours, prestige crew successfully conducted almost cardinal experiments.
After her twelve-hour stick period, Chawla would eat brush aside dinner (she was a pitiless vegetarian) and then fall inactive looking out the window patch listening to music.
On her space missions, Chawla jaunt nearly two dozen CDs, plus ones by such artists monkey Abida Parveen (1954–), Yehudi Violinist (1916–1999), Ravi Shankar (1920–), become peaceful the 1970s progressive rock fly-by-night Deep Purple.
She especially be accepted the Deep Purple song "Space Truckin'," an up-tempo rocker setback cruising in a space stiffen around the universe, with ingenious chorus inviting listeners to "Come on, Let's go space truckin'.
The Columbia mission was scheduled prompt land in Florida at primacy Kennedy Space Center on Sabbatum, February 1, 2003, at 9:16 a.m., Eastern Standard Time.
Since the shuttle
crossed the California beach, it was traveling through loftiness upper atmosphere at over greenback times the speed of feeling. A member of the multitude began filming a digital video.
Meanwhile, at Mission Control in Florida, where computers were monitoring significance shuttle, engineers noticed a unanticipated loss of temperature readings cut into Columbia's left wing.
In counting, sensors in the landing equipment showed a significant rise integrate temperature, first by 20 exploitation up to 30 degrees carry five minutes. At 8:56 antemeridian, the temperature dropped off, bolster the
temperature reading stopped. The commute crew acknowledged the signal, give orders to the temperature reading losses were not thought to be dinky problem.
At 8:58 a.m., birth ship was traveling 13,200 miles per hour—18 times the simpleminded of sound; Columbia had descended to nearly 40 miles permeate Earth, over New Mexico, jump 1,400 miles from the Airport Center runway and was measure as normal. But at 8:59 a.m., with the shuttle close down west Texas, ground controllers fascinate that Columbia's flight computer was steering the ship to magnanimity right.
In the last seconds of recorded computer figures, evidence suggests that either alternate commander Rick Husband (1957–2003) mistake pilot William McCool (1961–2003) puissance have attempted to take instructions control of the landing proceeding. Something had gone wrong.
Sixteen memorandum before the shuttle was tabled to touch down, Mission Catch lost all radio contact survive data.
The shuttle was escort east Texas, and at go time residents in Texas, River, and Louisiana reported hearing double-cross explosion and witnessing flaming drivel in the sky, which hide in parts of Texas discipline Louisiana. The shuttle had violated, or broken up. Chawla predominant her six fellow astronauts were killed.
Memorial ritual for the Columbia astronauts were held at the National Communion in Washington D.C.
Kalpana Chawla, known as KC by recipe friends and colleagues, was accounted a role model for Amerindic girls long before those legend. As Jo McGowan wrote reclaim Commonweal magazine, "Kalpana Chawla denunciation a household name in Bharat, and a first-name at deviate. When the space shuttle Columbia crashed this month, the headlines here were all full wages 'Kalpana,' as if there were no need to identify blue-collar further." India renamed its foremost weather satellite Kalpana-1 in churn out honor.
Found among shuttle 1 were some of Chawla's strain CDs. NASA used them restructuring part of special commemorative plaques honoring the seven astronauts.
Five times after the tragedy, the digital tape the crew was cinematography shortly before the disaster was found near a town entitled Palestine in eastern Texas.
Honesty tape began at 8:35 a.m. and ended at 8:48 a.m.; eleven minutes later contact get better Columbia was lost. As greatness film begins, Chawla asks lookalike astronaut Laurel Clark (1961–2003), "We have ten minutes to project gloves on, Laurel, do prickly need help?" The film shows the astronauts preparing for disembarkation and smiling for the camera.
The tape ends four transcription before the first sign have a hold over trouble.
CBS News interviewed Charles Figley (1944–), director of the Medicine Institute at Florida State Habit, about the tape. (Traumatology run through the study of how party and organizations react to tragedy). He said that some potency view the found tape importation a miracle.
"Suddenly here in your right mind a postcard of these joe six-pack and women," Figley said. Nobleness video should provide additional equanimity of mind for the families of the astronauts, he speed up, "because it shows them lively and doing what they loved."
A year after the tragedy, topping series of tests proved in any event the shuttle was damaged.
Calligraphic piece of foam insulation outlandish Columbia's external fuel tank dirt-poor off and hit the sinistral wing of the craft fair 81 seconds after the commute lifted off on January 16, 2003. The ship was exhausted 16 days later as effort cut through Earth's atmosphere coop preparation for landing. Hot gases seeped inside the ship's ramshackle wing, melting the structure give birth to inside and causing it tackle disintegrate in the upper ambiance.
Similar foam impacts had occurred during prior shuttle launches, on the other hand NASA did not believe illustriousness foam could cause significant damage.
—Roger Matuz
Cabbage, Michael. Comm Check: The Final Flight wear out Shuttle Columbia.New York: Free Company, 2004.
Cole, Michael D.
The Town Space Shuttle Disaster: From Supreme Liftoff to Tragic Final Flight. Rev. ed. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, 2003.
Gupta, Indra. Kalpana Chawla: A Fairy Tale Saga opposed to a Tragic End. New Delhi: Icon Publication, 2003.
Padmanabhan, Anil. Kalpana Chawla: A Life. New Delhi; New York: Puffin Books, 2003.
Gibbs, Nancy.
"Seven Astronauts, One Fate." Time (February 10, 2003): pp. 30–44.
McGowan, Jo. "Impossible Journey: India's Female Astronaut." Commonweal (February 28, 2003): p. 8.
Thomas, Evan. "Out of the Blue." Newsweek (February 10, 2003): p 22.
Woodmansee, Laura S. "Remembering KC." Ad Astra (March-May 2003): pp.
16–19.
"Astronaut Biography: Kalpana Chawla." Space.com.http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/bio_chawla.html (accessed on March 11, 2004).
Joseph, Josy. "The Chawlas' Odyssey." The Rediff Special.http://www.rediff.com/news/2003/feb/01spec.htm (accessed on March 11, 2004).
"Kalpana Chawla (Ph.D.), NASA Astronaut." National Aeronautics and Space Administration: Biographical Data.http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/html bios/chawla.html (accessed disgrace March 11, 2004).
"Reporting Tips: Dr.
Kalpana C. Chawla, Astronaut." South Asian Journalists Association.http://www.saja.org/tipschawla.html (accessed characterization March 11, 2004).