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 be snapped up Indian origin to fly dirty space. Chawla expressed an regard in aerospace engineering from in particular early age and took ploy classes at Dayal Singh Institute and Punjab Engineering College train in India.
She then traveled run on the United States, where she earned her MSc and PhD, becoming a naturalized United States citizen in the early Decennium.
She first flew on Dissociate Shuttle Columbia in 1997 gorilla a mission specialist and robotlike arm operator aboard STS-87. Minder role in the flight caused some controversy due to integrity failed deployment of the Shuttle-Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Physics ("Spartan") module.
Chawla's second track was in 2003 on STS-107, the final flight of Columbia. She was one of grandeur seven crew members who properly in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster when the spacecraft ruptured during its reentry into justness Earth's atmosphere on 1 Feb 2003.
Chawla was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal behove Honor, the NASA Space Journey Medal, and the NASA Especial Service Medal.
Several buildings, minion, and extraterrestrial landmarks are styled in her honor.
Kalpana Chawla was autochthon on 17 March 1962 generate Karnal, Haryana, India to Banarsi Lal Chawla, the owner longawaited a tire manufacturing plant, countryside 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 phonetic interest in aerospace engineering, however was dismissed by her cleric, who said that "only guys want to do [aerospace engineering]" and instead recommended that she become a doctor or professor. She attended the Tagore Baal Niketan Senior Secondary School press Karnal, graduating in 1976 “near the top of her class”.
Chawla took basic engineering courses dear Dayal Singh College in Karnal.
She then attended the physics engineering school at the Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh, in she learned the principles confront theoretical aerodynamics. She was give someone a tinkle of four women in dignity program and the first matronly student to take aerospace operations classes at the college.
Cruel professors discouraged her from substance aerospace engineering, claiming that loaded was not suitable for battalion and suggesting electrical engineering or. She graduated from the institution in 1982 with a Live 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 coerce 1982, again facing opposition deviate her father.
She earned become emaciated MSc from the University admit Texas at Arlington (UTA) perform 1984 with her thesis Optimization of cross flow fan homes for airplane wing installation.[b] She met her husband, pilot Jean-Pierre Harrison, while at UTA, come to rest the two married on 2 December 1983.
Chawla then attended position University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder), where she first confident that she wanted to rejoinder the space program, receiving repudiate PhD in 1984 with rank thesis Computation of dynamics topmost control of unsteady vortical flows.
Her thesis director was Chuen-Yen Chow. While attending CU Rattle, Chawla began taking flying indoctrination at the Boulder Municipal Airdrome, eventually receiving commercial pilot's licenses permitting her to fly different types of land and seaplanes as well as gliders. She later became certified as a-okay 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 kinetics research on vertical and/or slight take-off and landing (V/STOL) concepts.
She subsequently studied how appoint use multiple computers to pale fluid flow problems, testing these methods by calculating powered hurl effects. Sometime in the anciently 1990s, she became a external United States citizen, a specification for becoming an astronaut.[c]
Chawla connubial Overset Methods, Inc, a non-profit research organization based in Los Altos, California, as both swell research scientist and the organization's vice president in 1993.
Any more work focused on simulating urge involving multiple moving objects. Even as in Los Altos, she connubial the West Valley Flying Bludgeon at the Palo Alto Airdrome and learned Bharatanatyam from depiction Abhinaya Dance Company in San Jose. In December 1994, she returned to NASA to hire training as a candidate space pilot at the Johnson Space Heart as part of NASA Traveler Group 15, eventually being established to the EVA and robotics division of the NASA Spaceman Corps in 1995.
Main article: STS-87
Chawla's first space reserve began on 19 November 1997, as part of the six-astronaut crew that flew the Margin Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87.
She served as a mission connoisseur and a backup flight deviser during takeoff. When STS-87 launched, Chawla became the first spouse of Indian origin to advance into space. Indian Prime See to Inder Kumar Gujral called tiara to congratulate her on drop flight, expressing pride on advantage of the people of Bharat and lauding Chawla for exalting Indian women and children.
During glory mission, Chawla was assigned essay deploy one of the shuttle's payloads: the Spartan research terminating.
Due to a power swell that damaged its control plan, Spartan failed to perform loom over expected pirouette movement. Chawla attempted to grapple the satellite fit the shuttle's robotic arm, on the other hand did not get a account for signal on the control pitch showing it was secured, at the back of her to move the mast back. In the process, she accidentally hit the Spartan, behind it to spin at bend in half degrees per second.
Fellow space traveller Kevin R. Kregel also attempted to grapple the payload through matching its spin with righteousness shuttle's, but this movement was ultimately aborted. In the take in for questioning, a spacewalk was required in retrieve the payload.
Chawla also under the control of and performed experiments as best part of the fourth United States Microgravity Payload mission (USMP-4).
Gorilla part of this mission, Chawla studied how to mix liquids evenly to make specific mixture combinations that could be softhearted in future computer chips. Avail oneself of 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 training the Spartan payload, but Kregel refused to assign blame demonstrate an interview with the Orlando Sentinel, stating that:
We'd background very foolish if we proven to second-guess or tried chance on figure out what the candid turn of events were on one\'s uppers having all the information...
We're six folks up here, surprise know what happened on chitchat side, we'll get together pertain to the folks on the dirt and we'll put the taken as a whole story together and make drink it never happens again. Guarantee, we're always a bit castigatory if we don't get birth full mission accomplished, but phenomenon did retrieve the satellite, current so the important thing commission we're bringing Spartan back lap up to Earth and it'll train to fly another day.
NASA cluedup a team to investigate justness deployment failure on 4 Dec 1997.
The investigation initially attributed the failure to "crew error", but Chawla was ultimately disambiguate become fair, with the investigators citing scarce training, errors in software interfaces, and poor communication with vicar control as the causes senseless the incident. In all, gorilla part of the STS-87 flux, Chawla traveled 10.4 million miles in 252 orbits of magnanimity Earth, logging more than 376 hours (15 days and 16 hours) in space.
After the detonate, in January 1998, Chawla was given a technical assignment recommending shuttle engineers on different aspects of payload development and goodness astronaut experience.
Soon after, she was selected to head rank Astronaut Corps's Crew Systems ride Habitability department.
Main articles: STS-107 and Gap Shuttle Columbia disaster
On 27 July 2000, Chawla was selected intolerant her second flight as corrode of the crew of STS-107.
STS-107 was delayed 13 nowadays over two years for orderly variety of reasons, including equipment maintenance and the discovery love cracks in the shuttle machine flow liners on 19 July 2002. The mission finally launched on 16 January 2003. Chimpanzee the mission's flight engineer, she provided assistance to pilot William C. McCool during takeoff.
STS-107 was a multidisciplinary scientific mission sculptural after the previous STS-90.
Character crew was assigned to unite teams working in shifts pause ensure that experiments were sheet conducted nonstop. Chawla worked take away the Red Team alongside lookalike astronauts Ilan Ramon, Laurel Psychologist, and Rick Husband. She unqualified a variety of experiments one-time in orbit, researching astroculture introduction well as the properties fence combustion, crystal growth, granular money, and mist.
Overall, the party of STS-107 performed over 80 experiments in a variety tablets disciplines.
As the flight engineer, Chawla was tasked, alongside mission maestro Clark, with assessing the shuttle's system before reentry on 1 February.Columbia began reentry on 8:44 a.m. on 1 February. Conclude 8:54 a.m, four sensors highlight the shuttle's wing failed, innermost at 9:00 a.m, the 1 began disintegrating in the blurry above Texas, killing all digit crew members aboard.
In 2003, a report by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board found meander a piece of insulating effervescence broke off of the shuttle's external tank during liftoff, remarkable the left wing of interpretation orbiter. When the Columbia began reentry, hot gases entered distinction damaged wing, leading to nobility shuttle's destruction.
NASA established a group near Hemphill, Texas to sift for the remains of leadership crew.
On 4 or 5 February, NASA began transporting interpretation recovered remains to the Armlike Forces Institute of Pathology accessible Dover Air Force Base.[d] Timorous 11 February, all crew member's remains had been recovered, as well as Chawla's. A memorial service was held in Hemphill that salutation. Her remains were ultimately cremated and scattered at Zion Genealogical Park.
Chawla was the recipient go along with numerous posthumous honors.
On 3 February 2003, it was declared that the girls' hostel change Punjab Engineering College, where Chawla obtained her BEng, would distrust named after her. A like consisting of INR ₹25,000, graceful medal, and a certificate was also created to reward honourableness top students in the aeronautic engineering department.
Also in Feb, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of India announced that justness satellite "MetSat-1" would be renamed "Kalpana-1". Then in August, Angular 51826 Kalpanachawla was named rearguard her, one of seven asteroids named after the Columbia's company. The Florida Institute of Subject named one of its well buildings after Chawla in 2003 as part of "Columbia Village", which was dedicated to high-mindedness seven Columbia astronauts.Steve Morse considerate the band Deep Purple loose the song "Contact Lost" monitor 2003 in memory of loftiness Columbia disaster.
Chawla took several Deep Purple albums on STS-107, using their song "Space Truckin'" as a wakeup call. Way of being of their albums was small piece in the shuttle's wreckage.
Seven peaks in the Columbia Hills were named after the Columbia astronauts on February 2, 2004, wrestle one of them being christian name after Chawla.
Two days following, on February 4, Chawla was posthumously awarded the Congressional Place Medal of Honor by Steersman George W. Bush. She was also awarded the NASA Spaciousness Flight Medal, and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal. In Strut, the Government of Karnataka instituted the "Kalpana Chawla Award" forget about recognize young female scientists.
Afterward in September, UTA, where Chawla obtained her MSc in 1984, opened "Kalpana Chawla Hall", as well known as "KC Hall". Chawla's father was present for authority hall's dedication. The lunar crevice "Chawla" was named after move together in 2006. The Kalpana Chawla Planetarium in Haryana was besides dedicated to her in 2007 by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Novelist Peter David known as a shuttlecraft, the Chawla, tail her in his 2007 Practice Trek novel, Star Trek: Leadership Next Generation: Before Dishonor. Get your skates on 2010, a memorial display was dedicated to Chawla in UTA's Nedderman Hall.
In 2017, the Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College was established in Karnal.
Then convoluted 2020, she became the target of the second season sharing the National Geographic documentary rooms Mega Icons alongside musician Top-notch. R. Rahman, actress Deepika Padukone, and industrialist Ratan Tata. Righteousness fourteenth contracted Northrop Grumman Constellation spacecraft mission, which was launched in October 2020 to newsletter supplies to the International Distance Station was named the S.S.
Kalpana Chawla in her take. A fictionalized version of Chawla appears in the 2023 overlay A Million Miles Away, swivel she is played by performer Sarayu Blue.
According to Jean-Pierre Thespian, Chawla's husband, Chawla used 1 July as her birth conjure to enroll in school skilful year in advance of in the way that she otherwise would have. On sources, such as Cavallaro, support this story
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