Kalpana Chawla

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kalpana Chawla
NASA Astronaut
Born	March 17, 1962 Karnal, Haryana
Died	February 1, 2003(aged 40) Over Texas
Previous occupation	Research Scientist
Time in space	31 days, 14 hours, 54 minutes
Selection	1994 NASA Group
Missions	STS-87, STS-107
Mission insignia
Awards

Kalpana Chawla (March 17, 1962 – February 1, 2003) was born in Karnal, India. She was the first Indian American astronaut^[1] and first Indian woman in space.^[2] She first flew on Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997 as a mission specialist and primary robotic arm operator. In 2003, Chawla was one of seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.^[3]

Education [edit]

Chawla completed her earlier schooling at Tagore Public School, Karnal. She was underage and to enable her to enroll in school, her date of birth was changed to July 1,1961. She completed Bachelor of Engineering degree in Aeronautical Engineering at Punjab Engineering College at Chandigarh in 1982. She moved to the United States in 1982 and obtained a M.S. degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1984. Chawla went on to earn a second M.S. degree in 1986 and a PhD in aerospace engineering in 1988 from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Later that year she began working at the NASA Ames Research Center as vice president of Overset Methods, Inc. where she did CFD research on Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing concepts. Chawla held a Certificated Flight Instructor rating for airplanes, gliders and Commercial Pilot licenses for single and multi-engine airplanes, seaplanes and gliders.