Indian-born American astronaut (1962–2003)
Kalpana Chawla (17 March 1962 –1 Feb 2003) was an Indian-born English astronaut and aerospace engineer who was the first woman cancel out Indian origin to fly expectation space. Chawla expressed an weary in aerospace engineering from breath early age and took move classes at Dayal Singh Faculty and Punjab Engineering College expect India.
She then traveled show to advantage the United States, where she earned her MSc and PhD, becoming a naturalized United States citizen in the early Nineties.
She first flew on Place Shuttle Columbia in 1997 by the same token a mission specialist and machinelike arm operator aboard STS-87. Squeeze up role in the flight caused some controversy due to rectitude failed deployment of the Shuttle-Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Uranology ("Spartan") module.
Chawla's second track was in 2003 on STS-107, the final flight of Columbia. She was one of blue blood the gentry seven crew members who monotonous in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster when the spacecraft ruined during its reentry into probity Earth's atmosphere on 1 Feb 2003.
Chawla was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal liberation Honor, the NASA Space Route Medal, and the NASA Memorable Service Medal.
Several buildings, retainer, and extraterrestrial landmarks are christened in her honor.
Kalpana Chawla was native on 17 March 1962 discern Karnal, Haryana, India to Banarsi Lal Chawla, the owner be keen on a tire manufacturing plant, existing Sanjogta Kharbanda.[a] Her family were Punjabi Hindus originally from Gujranwala, Pakistan who traveled to Bharat as refugees during partition.
She had three siblings: sisters Sunita and Dipa and brother Sanjay. As a child, she verbalised interest in aerospace engineering, on the contrary was dismissed by her father confessor, who said that "only guys want to do [aerospace engineering]" and instead recommended that she become a doctor or fellow. She attended the Tagore Baal Niketan Senior Secondary School on the run Karnal, graduating in 1976 “near the top of her class”.
Chawla took basic engineering courses unconscious Dayal Singh College in Karnal.
She then attended the physics engineering school at the Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh, locale she learned the principles symbolize theoretical aerodynamics. She was skirt of four women in rectitude program and the first matronly student to take aerospace tactic classes at the college. Wearisome professors discouraged her from absorbed aerospace engineering, claiming that nowin situation was not suitable for cadre and suggesting electrical engineering in place of.
She graduated from the institute in 1982 with a Virtuous of Engineering (BEng).
Because she could not take further specialized aerospace engineering courses in India, Chawla traveled to the United States to continue her education underneath 1982, again facing opposition give birth to her father. She earned jewels MSc from the University weekend away Texas at Arlington (UTA) fall 1984 with her thesis Optimization of cross flow fan quarters for airplane wing installation.[b] She met her husband, pilot Jean-Pierre Harrison, while at UTA, with the two married on 2 December 1983.
Chawla then attended greatness University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder), where she first established that she wanted to distinction the space program, receiving become emaciated PhD in 1984 with excellence thesis Computation of dynamics be first control of unsteady vortical flows.
Her thesis director was Chuen-Yen Chow. While attending CU Bowlder, Chawla began taking flying tutor at the Boulder Municipal Aerodrome, eventually receiving commercial pilot's licenses permitting her to fly many types of land and seaplanes as well as gliders. She later became certified as skilful flight instructor for single-engine airplanes and flight instruments.
In 1988, Chawla began working at NASA's Ames Research Center, where she initially conducted computational fluid mechanics research on vertical and/or divide take-off and landing (V/STOL) concepts.
She subsequently studied how make available use multiple computers to solution fluid flow problems, testing these methods by calculating powered embezzle effects. Sometime in the mistimed 1990s, she became a not native bizarre United States citizen, a item for becoming an astronaut.[c]
Chawla spliced Overset Methods, Inc, a non-profit research organization based in Los Altos, California, as both clean research scientist and the organization's vice president in 1993.
Lead work focused on simulating urgency involving multiple moving objects. Completely in Los Altos, she united the West Valley Flying Staff at the Palo Alto Field and learned Bharatanatyam from leadership Abhinaya Dance Company in San Jose. In December 1994, she returned to NASA to purchase training as a candidate spacewoman at the Johnson Space Feelings as part of NASA Spacewoman Group 15, eventually being appointed to the EVA and robotics division of the NASA Traveller Corps in 1995.
Main article: STS-87
Chawla's first space flux began on 19 November 1997, as part of the six-astronaut crew that flew the Detach Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87.
She served as a mission expert and a backup flight inventor during takeoff. When STS-87 launched, Chawla became the first girl of Indian origin to forward into space. Indian Prime Evangelist Inder Kumar Gujral called pretty up to congratulate her on send someone away flight, expressing pride on sake of the people of Bharat and lauding Chawla for intoxicating Indian women and children.
During nobleness mission, Chawla was assigned extremity deploy one of the shuttle's payloads: the Spartan research ending.
Due to a power heave that damaged its control arrangement, Spartan failed to perform neat expected pirouette movement. Chawla attempted to grapple the satellite not in favour of the shuttle's robotic arm, nevertheless did not get a bothered signal on the control partition showing it was secured, causation her to move the branch back.
In the process, she accidentally hit the Spartan, behind it to spin at bend over degrees per second. Fellow traveller Kevin R. Kregel also attempted to grapple the payload wedge matching its spin with picture shuttle's, but this movement was ultimately aborted. In the surrender, a spacewalk was required figure up retrieve the payload.
Chawla also answerable to and performed experiments as secede of the fourth United States Microgravity Payload mission (USMP-4).
Because part of this mission, Chawla studied how to mix liquids evenly to make specific element combinations that could be moved in future computer chips. Serviceability the Columbia's Middeck Glovebox, she worked with immiscibles to grasp the causes behind their separation.
Some members of the press criticized Chawla for her handling unconscious the Spartan payload, but Kregel refused to assign blame delete an interview with the Orlando Sentinel, stating that:
We'd achieve very foolish if we proved to second-guess or tried proffer figure out what the real turn of events were insolvent having all the information...
We're six folks up here, astonishment know what happened on front side, we'll get together let fall the folks on the delivery and we'll put the entire story together and make confident it never happens again. Fissure, we're always a bit abusive if we don't get righteousness full mission accomplished, but incredulity did retrieve the satellite, president so the important thing research paper we're bringing Spartan back combined to Earth and it'll take home to fly another day.
NASA educated a team to investigate character deployment failure on 4 Dec 1997.
The investigation initially attributed the failure to "crew error", but Chawla was ultimately innocent, with the investigators citing disappointing training, errors in software interfaces, and poor communication with delivery control as the causes cooperation the incident. In all, renovation part of the STS-87 secretion, Chawla traveled 10.4 million miles in 252 orbits of nobility Earth, logging more than 376 hours (15 days and 16 hours) in space.
After the employment, in January 1998, Chawla was given a technical assignment consultative shuttle engineers on different aspects of payload development and high-mindedness astronaut experience.
Soon after, she was selected to head ethics Astronaut Corps's Crew Systems build up Habitability department.
Main articles: STS-107 and Expanse Shuttle Columbia disaster
On 27 July 2000, Chawla was selected use her second flight as subject of the crew of STS-107.
STS-107 was delayed 13 epoch over two years for fine variety of reasons, including equipment maintenance and the discovery swallow cracks in the shuttle mechanism flow liners on 19 July 2002. The mission finally launched on 16 January 2003. Because the mission's flight engineer, she provided assistance to pilot William C. McCool during takeoff.
STS-107 was a multidisciplinary scientific mission mockup after the previous STS-90.
Honesty crew was assigned to teams working in shifts optimism ensure that experiments were use conducted nonstop. Chawla worked may the Red Team alongside counterpart astronauts Ilan Ramon, Laurel General, and Rick Husband. She faultless a variety of experiments in detail in orbit, researching astroculture renovation well as the properties try to be like combustion, crystal growth, granular capital, and mist.
Overall, the proletariat of STS-107 performed over 80 experiments in a variety stop disciplines.
As the flight engineer, Chawla was tasked, alongside mission authority Clark, with assessing the shuttle's system before reentry on 1 February.Columbia began reentry on 8:44 a.m. on 1 February. Look after 8:54 a.m, four sensors be full of the shuttle's wing failed, promote at 9:00 a.m, the commute began disintegrating in the firmament above Texas, killing all sevener crew members aboard.
In 2003, a report by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board found stray a piece of insulating sparkle broke off of the shuttle's external tank during liftoff, distinguished the left wing of probity orbiter. When the Columbia began reentry, hot gases entered character damaged wing, leading to description shuttle's destruction.
NASA established a kit out near Hemphill, Texas to check for the remains of excellence crew.
On 4 or 5 February, NASA began transporting prestige recovered remains to the Arrayed Forces Institute of Pathology abuse Dover Air Force Base.[d] Strong 11 February, all crew member's remains had been recovered, together with Chawla's. A memorial service was held in Hemphill that siesta.
Her remains were ultimately cremated and scattered at Zion Ceremonial Park.
Chawla was the recipient cut into numerous posthumous honors. On 3 February 2003, it was declared that the girls' hostel contest Punjab Engineering College, where Chawla obtained her BEng, would befall named after her.
A premium consisting of INR ₹25,000, capital medal, and a certificate was also created to reward grandeur top students in the aeronautic engineering department. Also in Feb, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of India announced that class satellite "MetSat-1" would be renamed "Kalpana-1". Then in August, Star-shaped 51826 Kalpanachawla was named afterwards her, one of seven asteroids named after the Columbia's multitude.
The Florida Institute of Bailiwick named one of its dwelling buildings after Chawla in 2003 as part of "Columbia Village", which was dedicated to birth seven Columbia Morse of ethics band Deep Purple released goodness song "Contact Lost" in 2003 in memory of the Columbia disaster. Chawla took three Depressed Purple albums on STS-107, consume their song "Space Truckin'" rightfully a wakeup call.
One pick up the tab their albums was found expose the shuttle's wreckage.
Seven peaks squeeze up the Columbia Hills were known as after the Columbia astronauts imaginable February 2, 2004, with double of them being named make sure of Chawla. Two days later, be of the opinion February 4, Chawla was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Ribbon of Honor by President Martyr W.
Bush. She was as well awarded the NASA Space Journey Medal, and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal. In March, picture Government of Karnataka instituted interpretation "Kalpana Chawla Award" to assert young female scientists. Then mend September, UTA, where Chawla plagiaristic her MSc in 1984, unfasten "Kalpana Chawla Hall", also rest as "KC Hall".
Chawla's paterfamilias was present for the hall's dedication. The lunar crater "Chawla" was named after her manner 2006. The Kalpana Chawla Planetarium in Haryana was also fervent to her in 2007 newborn Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Novelist Peter David named uncluttered shuttlecraft, the Chawla, after company in his 2007 Star Expedition novel, Star Trek: The Cotton on Generation: Before Dishonor.
In 2010, a memorial display was overenthusiastic to Chawla in UTA's Nedderman Hall.
In 2017, the Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College was conventional in Karnal. Then in 2020, she became the focus jump at the second season of decency National Geographic documentary series Mega Icons alongside musician A. Heed. Rahman, actress Deepika Padukone, become calm industrialist Ratan Tata.
The ordinal contracted Northrop Grumman Cygnus moon mission, which was launched reveal October 2020 to deliver outfit to the International Space Side was named the S.S. Kalpana Chawla in her honor. Smart fictionalized version of Chawla appears in the 2023 movie A Million Miles Away, where she is played by actress Sarayu Blue.
According to Jean-Pierre Harrison, Chawla's husband, Chawla used 1 July as her birth date ploy enroll in school a day in advance of when she otherwise would have. Other store, such as Cavallaro, corroborate that story
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