Kalpana Chawla

She was one of seven crewmembers killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.


Early life
Kalpana Chawla was born in a Hindu Indian family in Karnal, Haryana, India. Kalpana in Sanskrit means "imagination of the mind" and thus also "creation." Her interest in flying was inspired by J. Tata, a pioneering Indian pilot and industrialist.
Education
Kalpana Chawla studied at Tagore Public School, Karnal for her earlier schooling and she pursued further studies aeronautical engineering at Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh, India, in 1982 where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree.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 (1984).

Chawla earned a second Master of Science degree in 1986 and a Ph.D. Later that year she began working for NASA Ames Research Center as vice president of Overset Methods, Inc.where she did CFD research on V/STOL. Chawla held a Certificated Flight Instructor rating for airplanes, gliders and Commercial Pilot licenses for single and multiengine airplanes, seaplanes and gliders. She held an FCC issued Technician Class Amateur Radio license with the call sign KD5ESI.

She met and married Jean-Pierre Harrison, a flying instructor and aviation writer, in 1983 and became a naturalized United States citizen in 1990.
NASA career


Chawla in the space shuttle simulator

Chawla joined the NASA astronaut corps in March 1995 and was selected for her first flight in 1998. Her first space mission began on November 19, 1997 as part of the six astronaut crew that flew the Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87.Chawla was the first Indian-born woman and the second person of Indian origin to fly in space, following cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma who flew in 1984 in a Soviet spacecraft. On her first mission Chawla travelled over 10.4 million miles in 252 orbits of the earth, logging more than 360 hours in space.

During STS-87, she was responsible for deploying the Spartan Satellite which malfunctioned, necessitating a spacewalk by Winston Scott and Takao Doi to capture the satellite. A five-month NASA investigation fully exonerated Chawla by identifying errors in software interfaces and the defined procedures of flight crew and ground control.
After the completion of STS-87 post-flight activities, Chawla was assigned to technical positions in the astronaut office, her performance in which was recognized with a special award from her peers.
In 2000 she 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 January 16, 2003 Chawla finally returned to space abroad Columbia on the ill-fated STS-107 mission.

For various reasons, Chawla was never able to follow up on invitations to visit India after she became an astronaut.
Awards
Posthumously awarded:
Congressional Space Medal of Honor
NASA Space Flight Medal
NASA Distinguished Service Medal
Defense Distinguished Service Medal (DDSM).

Memoria
Kalpana Chawla Memorial Scholarship program was instituted by Indian students association (ISA) at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in 2005 for meritorious graduate students.
Asteroid 51826 Kalpanachawla, one of seven citations named after the Columbia's crew
On February 5, 2003, India's Prime Minister announced that the meteorological series of satellites, "METSAT", will be renamed as "KALPANA". The first satellite of the series, "METSAT-1", launched by India on September 12, 2002 will be now known as "KALPANA-1"."KALPANA-2" is expected to be launched by 2007.
74th Street in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City has been renamed 74th Street Kalpana Chawla Way in her honor.
The University of Texas at Arlington (where Chawla obtained a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering in 1984) opened a dormitory named in her honor, Kalpana Chawla Hall, in 2004.
Kalpana Chawla Award award was instituted by the government of Karnataka in 2004 for young women scientists
The girls hostel at Punjab Engineering College, is named after Kalpana Chawla. In addition, an award of INR twenty five thousand, a medal, and a certificate is instituted for the best student in Aeronautical engineering department
NASA has dedicated a super computer to Kalpana.
One of Florida Institute of Technology's student apartment complexes, Columbia Village Suites, has halls named after each of the astronauts, including Chawla.
NASA Mars Exploration Rover mission has named seven peaks in a chain of hills, named the Columbia Hills, after each of the seven astronauts lost in the Columbia shuttle disaster, including Chawla hill after Kalpana Chawla.
Steve Morse from the band Deep Purple created a song called "Contact Lost" in memory of the Columbia tragedy along with her interest in the band.

Isn't that what a star is? She is a permanent star in the sky.