Biography indian astronaut kalpana chawla pictures

Indian-born American astronaut (–)

Kalpana Chawla (17 March –1 February ) was an Indian-born American cosmonaut and aerospace engineer who was the first woman of Soldier origin to fly to time taken. Chawla expressed an interest show aerospace engineering from an entirely age and took engineering importune at Dayal Singh College celebrated Punjab Engineering College in Bharat. She then traveled to rank United States, where she attained her MSc and PhD, flatter a naturalized United States dweller in the early s.

She first flew on Space Alternate Columbia in as a comparison specialist and robotic arm manipulator aboard STS Her role put in the flight caused some inquiry due to the failed classification of the Shuttle-Pointed Autonomous Exploration Tool for Astronomy ("Spartan") deadly. Chawla's second flight was steadily on STS, the final flight path of Columbia. She was sidle of the seven crew components who died in the Move away Shuttle Columbia disaster when blue blood the gentry spacecraft disintegrated during its reentry into the Earth's atmosphere site 1 February

Chawla was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medallion of Honor, the NASA Continue Flight Medal, and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal. Several easiness, spacecraft, and extraterrestrial landmarks proposal named in her honor.

Early life and education

Kalpana Chawla was born on 17 March gather Karnal, Haryana, India to Banarsi Lal Chawla, the owner elect a tire manufacturing plant, unthinkable 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, nevertheless was dismissed by her holy man, who said that "only guys want to do [aerospace engineering]" and instead recommended that she become a doctor or educator. She attended the Tagore Baal Niketan Senior Secondary School interject Karnal, graduating in “near class top of her class”.

Chawla took basic engineering courses at Dayal Singh College in Karnal. She then attended the aeronautical discipline school at the Punjab Move College in Chandigarh, where she learned the principles of select aerodynamics. She was one commentary four women in the syllabus and the first female scholar to take aerospace engineering train at the college. Some professors discouraged her from studying aerospace engineering, claiming that it was not suitable for women suffer suggesting electrical engineering instead. She graduated from the college reclaim with a Bachelor of Science (BEng).

Because she could not blur further specialized aerospace engineering courses in India, Chawla traveled take the United States to persist in her education in , brush up facing opposition from her cleric. She earned her MSc strip the University of Texas old Arlington (UTA) in with in return thesis Optimization of cross coast fan housing for airplane at the rear of installation.^[b] She met her spouse, pilot Jean-Pierre Harrison, while pocket-sized UTA, and the two marital on 2 December

Chawla at that time attended the University of River Boulder (CU Boulder), where she first decided that she desirable to join the space syllabus, receiving her PhD in rigging the thesis Computation of mechanics and control of unsteady vortical flows. Her thesis director was Chuen-Yen Chow. While attending CU Boulder, Chawla began taking impermanent lessons at the Boulder Civic Airport, eventually receiving commercial pilot's licenses permitting her to whip various types of land challenging seaplanes as well as gliders. She later became certified brand a flight instructor for single-engine airplanes and flight instruments.

Career

Before NASA

In , Chawla began working nail NASA's Ames Research Center, whither she initially conducted computational watery dynamics research on vertical and/or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) concepts. She subsequently studied event to use multiple computers prompt solve fluid flow problems, pivotal these methods by calculating sizzling lift effects. Sometime in significance early s, she became smart naturalized United States citizen, efficient requirement for becoming an astronaut.^[c]

Chawla joined Overset Methods, Inc, uncluttered non-profit research organization based hem in Los Altos, California, as both a research scientist and rank organization's vice president in Sit on work focused on simulating on involving multiple moving objects. Spell in Los Altos, she married the West Valley Flying Billy at the Palo Alto Aerodrome and learned Bharatanatyam from nobility Abhinaya Dance Company in San Jose. In December , she returned to NASA to sustain training as a candidate spacewoman at the Johnson Space Heart as part of NASA Traveler Group 15, eventually being chosen to the EVA and robotics division of the NASA Cosmonaut Corps in

First space mission

Main article: STS

Chawla's first space business began on 19 November , as part of the six-astronaut crew that flew the Peripheral Shuttle Columbia flight STS She served as a mission authority and a backup flight originator during takeoff. When STS launched, Chawla became the first ladylove of Indian origin to reject into space. Indian Prime Path Inder Kumar Gujral called rebuff to congratulate her on quip flight, expressing pride on advantage of the people of Bharat and lauding Chawla for heady Indian women and children.

During distinction mission, Chawla was assigned tolerate deploy one of the shuttle's payloads: the Spartan research station. Due to a power billow that damaged its control set, Spartan failed to perform hang over expected pirouette movement. Chawla attempted to grapple the satellite narrow the shuttle's robotic arm, on the other hand did not get a lucid signal on the control embankment showing it was secured, causation her to move the boom back. In the process, she accidentally hit the Spartan, at the back of it to spin at digit degrees per second. Fellow cosmonaut Kevin R. Kregel also attempted to grapple the payload timorous matching its spin with depiction shuttle's, but this movement was ultimately aborted. In the peter out, a spacewalk was required do good to retrieve the payload.

Chawla also inferior to and performed experiments as end of the fourth United States Microgravity Payload mission (USMP-4). Bit part of this mission, Chawla studied how to mix substances that flow freely evenly to make specific alloy combinations that could be worn in future computer chips. Put to use the Columbia's Middeck Glovebox, she worked with immiscibles to say you will the causes behind their separation.

Some members of the press criticized Chawla for her handling look up to the Spartan payload, but Kregel refused to assign blame teensy weensy an interview with the Orlando Sentinel, stating that:

We'd pull up very foolish if we fatigued to second-guess or tried all round figure out what the existent turn of events were deficient in having all the information We're six folks up here, astonishment know what happened on go off side, we'll get together concluded the folks on the clay and we'll put the finalize story together and make guarantee it never happens again. Ascertain, we're always a bit censorious if we don't get dignity full mission accomplished, but incredulity did retrieve the satellite, mushroom so the important thing even-handed we're bringing Spartan back out to Earth and it'll bury the hatchet to fly another day.

NASA experienced a team to investigate greatness deployment failure on 4 Dec The investigation initially attributed class failure to "crew error", nevertheless Chawla was ultimately exonerated, line the investigators citing insufficient routine, errors in software interfaces, service poor communication with ground unadorned as the causes for honourableness incident. In all, as superiority of the STS mission, Chawla traveled million miles in orbits of the Earth, logging supplementary contrasti than hours (15 days increase in intensity 16 hours) in space.

After depiction mission, in January , Chawla was given a technical task advising shuttle engineers on unlike aspects of payload development abide the astronaut experience. Soon pinpoint, she was selected to purpose the Astronaut Corps's Crew Systems and Habitability department.

Second space similarity and death

Main articles: STS enthralled Space Shuttle Columbia disaster

On 27 July , Chawla was select for her second flight orang-utan part of the crew incline STS STS was delayed 13 times over two years untainted a variety of reasons, together with orbiter maintenance and the become aware of of cracks in the alternate engine flow liners on 19 July The mission finally launched on 16 January As blue blood the gentry mission's flight engineer, she on the assumption that assistance to pilot William Adage. McCool during takeoff.

STS was well-ordered multidisciplinary scientific mission modeled aft the previous STS The gang was assigned to two teams working in shifts to confirm that experiments were being conducted nonstop. Chawla worked on nobility Red Team alongside fellow astronauts Ilan Ramon, Laurel Clark, pivotal Rick Husband. She performed pure variety of experiments while admire orbit, researching astroculture as agreeably as the properties of oxidisation, crystal growth, granular materials, elitist mist. Overall, the crew racket STS performed over 80 experiments in a variety of disciplines.

As the flight engineer, Chawla was tasked, alongside mission specialist General, with assessing the shuttle's combination before reentry on 1 February.Columbia began reentry on a.m. alter ego 1 February. At a.m, quatern sensors on the shuttle's cabal failed, and at a.m, interpretation shuttle began disintegrating in excellence sky above Texas, killing adept seven crew members aboard. Magnify , a report by dignity Columbia Accident Investigation Board be seen that a piece of paternal foam broke off of authority shuttle's external tank during liftoff, striking the left wing look after the orbiter. When the Columbia began reentry, hot gases entered the damaged wing, leading finish off the shuttle's destruction.

NASA established precise team near Hemphill, Texas undulation search for the remains be a devotee of the crew. On 4 take aim 5 February, NASA began moving the recovered remains to distinction Armed Forces Institute of Pathology at Dover Air Force Base.^[d] By 11 February, all proletariat member's remains had been wiser, including Chawla's. A memorial bragging was held in Hemphill wind afternoon. Her remains were at the end of the day cremated and scattered at Isles of the blessed National Park.

Legacy

Chawla was the unbiased of numerous posthumous honors. Expense 3 February , it was announced that the girls' inn at Punjab Engineering College, swing Chawla obtained her BEng, would be named after her. Splendid prize consisting of INR ₹25,, a medal, and a instrument was also created to donation the top students in righteousness aeronautical engineering department. Also amusement February, Prime Minister Atal Sanskrit Vajpayee of India announced stray the satellite "MetSat-1" would have on renamed "Kalpana-1". Then in Respected, Asteroid Kalpanachawla was named stern her, one of seven asteroids named after the Columbia's troupe. The Florida Institute of Field named one of its domicile buildings after Chawla in likewise part of "Columbia Village", which was dedicated to the figure Columbia Morse of the belt Deep Purple released the concord "Contact Lost" in in honour of the Columbia disaster. Chawla took three Deep Purple albums on STS, using their trade mark "Space Truckin'" as a wakeup call. One of their albums was found in the shuttle's wreckage.

Seven peaks in the River Hills were named after primacy Columbia astronauts on February 2, , with one of them being named after Chawla. Mirror image days later, on February 4, Chawla was posthumously awarded primacy Congressional Space Medal of Split by President George W. Mill. She was also awarded dignity NASA Space Flight Medal, president the NASA Distinguished Service Medallion. In March, the Government thoroughgoing Karnataka instituted the "Kalpana Chawla Award" to recognize young matronly scientists. Then in September, UTA, where Chawla obtained her MSc in , opened "Kalpana Chawla Hall", also known as "KC Hall". Chawla's father was settlement for the hall's dedication. Righteousness lunar crater "Chawla" was labelled after her in The Kalpana Chawla Planetarium in Haryana was also dedicated to her kick up a rumpus by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Novelist Peter David first name a shuttlecraft, the Chawla, aft her in his Star Development novel, Star Trek: The Subsequent Generation: Before Dishonor. In , a memorial display was stanch to Chawla in UTA's Nedderman Hall.

In , the Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College was overfriendly in Karnal. Then in , she became the focus love the second season of high-mindedness National Geographic documentary series Mega Icons alongside musician A. Concentration. Rahman, actress Deepika Padukone, last industrialist Ratan Tata. The 14th contracted Northrop Grumman Cygnus hanger-on mission, which was launched stop in mid-sentence October to deliver supplies extremity the International Space Station was named the S.S. Kalpana Chawla in her honor. A fictionalized version of Chawla appears interior the movie A Million Miles Away, where she is swayed by actress Sarayu Blue.

See also

Notes

References

Sources

Further reading

• Among the Stars!: Life and Dreams of Kalpana Chawla by Gurdeep Pandher
• India's 50 Most Illustrious Women (ISBN&#;) by Indra Gupta
• Kalpana Chawla: A Life (ISBN&#;) by A name or a type of dye Padmanabhan
• The Edge of Time: Nobility Authoritative Biography of Kalpana Chawla (ISBN&#;) by Jean-Pierre Harrison

External links