Remembering Kalpana Chawla

Kalpana Chawla, Indian-Amerian Astronaut

Remembering Kalpana Chawla, The Lady Who Touched the Sky!

Kalpana Chawla was an American astronaut, engineer, and the first woman of Indian origin to go to space.
She first flew on Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997 as a mission specialist and primary robotic arm operator.
Kalpana Chawla was the first woman of Indian origin to fly to space. Born on March 17, 1962,
in Karnal, Kalpana became a citizen of the United States in 1991.
Ever since she was a child, Kalpana was fascinated by aeroplanes and flying.
Such was her love that she used to often go to local flying clubs with her father and watch planes.
Kalpana Chawla who had a lengthy conversation with former Indian Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral from the spaceship
during the STS-87 mission aboard Columbia, saw the former PM say, “Kalpana we are proud of you. Each one of us is proud
of a person like you who has done such pioneering work. Particularly, the youth and women of India are gaining pride
in seeing what you have done in the space. My hearty congratulations.”
Gujral also asked Kalpana to promise to visit India once she returns to the Earth; however, the meeting never came
to being with her spacecraft disintegrating during its re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere on February 1, 2003.