On the 15th death anniversary of first Indian-origin astronaut Kalpana Chawla, we remember the woman who inspired us to believe in our passion and not give into gender stereotypes.
1. Kalpana Chawla was born in an average middle-class family on March 17, 1972 in Haryana's Karnal.
2. She did her schooling from Karnal and completed a course in aeronautical engineering in Chandigarh's Punjab Engineering College.
3. In 1982, she moved to United States to pursue her dream of becoming an astronaut and attained a Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from University of Texas. She then went on to pursue PhD in the same course from the University of Colorado.
4. In April 1988, Chawla started working at the NASA Ames Research Center. In 1991, she acquired US citizenship and thus became a member of the NASA Astronaut Corps in March 1995.
5. In 1997, she became the first Indian-born female astronaut and the second Indian to fly in space. She went on her first mission on Space Shuttle Columbia as a primary robotic arm operator and also a mission specialist. She was part of the six-member astronaut crew for the mission which started on November 19, 1997.
6. Kalpana was selected as part of the prestigious crew of STS-107 in 2007. After repeated delay of her second mission which was also her last, it finally began on 2003. The space shuttle crushed over Texas while it was re-entering Earth's atmosphere after 16-day flight on February 1, 2003.
7. She clocked 30 days, 14 hours and 54 minutes in total for both missions in space.
8. Kalpana was posthumously honoured with NASA Distinguished Service Medal, NASA Space Flight Medal and the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
9. She married American Jean-Pierre Harrison in 1983. Harrison runs a publishing house in California and even authored a book 'The Edge of Time: The Authoritative Biography of Kalpana Chawla' which gives an insight into her life.
