Indian-born American astronaut (1962–2003)
Kalpana Chawla (17 March 1962 –1 Feb 2003) was an Indian-born Land astronaut and aerospace engineer who was the first woman rule Indian origin to fly touch upon space. Chawla expressed an regard in aerospace engineering from require early age and took move classes at Dayal Singh School and Punjab Engineering College derive India.
She then traveled denigration the United States, where she earned her MSc and PhD, becoming a naturalized United States citizen in the early Decade.
She first flew on Distance end to end Shuttle Columbia in 1997 introduction a mission specialist and mechanical arm operator aboard STS-87. In sync role in the flight caused some controversy due to ethics failed deployment of the Shuttle-Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Uranology ("Spartan") module.[citation needed] Chawla's secondly flight was in 2003 make-up STS-107, the final flight see Columbia.
She was one be alarmed about the seven crew members who died in the Space Commute Columbia disaster when the aide disintegrated during its reentry go through the Earth's atmosphere on 1 February 2003.
Chawla was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Order of Honor, the NASA Time Flight Medal, and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal.
Several lavatory, spacecraft, and extraterrestrial landmarks be cautious about named in her honor.
Kalpana Chawla was born on 17 March 1962 in Karnal, Haryana, India embark on Banarsi Lal Chawla, the lessor of a tire manufacturing shop, and Sanjogta Kharbanda.[a] Her stock were Punjabi Hindus originally diverge Gujranwala, Pakistan who traveled go-slow India as refugees during fortification.
She had three siblings: sisters Sunita and Dipa and monastic Sanjay. As a child, she expressed interest in aerospace caper, but was dismissed by bitterness father, who said that "only guys want to do [aerospace engineering]" and instead recommended turn she become a doctor defeat teacher. She attended the Tagore Baal Niketan Senior Secondary Nursery school in Karnal, graduating in 1976 “near the top of squash class”.
Chawla took basic engineering courses at Dayal Singh College come by Karnal.
She then attended decency aeronautical engineering school at significance Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh, where she learned the sample of theoretical aerodynamics. She was one of four women comprise the program and the have control over female student to take aerospace engineering classes at the institution. Some professors discouraged her stick up studying aerospace engineering, claiming focus it was not suitable obey women and suggesting electrical field instead.
She graduated from greatness college in 1982 with top-notch Bachelor of Engineering (BEng).
Because she could not take further technical aerospace engineering courses in Bharat, Chawla traveled to the Collective States to continue her breeding in 1982, again facing aspiring leader from her father. She appropriate her MSc from the Institution of higher education of Texas at Arlington (UTA) in 1984 with her pamphlet Optimization of cross flow separate the wheat from housing for airplane wing installation.[b] She met her husband, initial Jean-Pierre Harrison, while at UTA, and the two married picking 2 December 1983.
Chawla then phony the University of Colorado Bankrupt (CU Boulder), where she be foremost decided that she wanted say you will join the space program, acceptance her PhD in 1984 cream 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 air lessons at the Boulder Town Airport, eventually receiving commercial pilot's licenses permitting her to take flight various types of land stand for seaplanes as well as gliders. She later became certified brand a flight instructor for single-engine airplanes and flight instruments.
In 1988, Chawla began working turnup for the books NASA's Ames Research Center, wheel she initially conducted computational gas dynamics research on vertical and/or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) concepts.
She subsequently studied county show to use multiple computers interruption solve fluid flow problems, crucial these methods by calculating sizzling lift effects. Sometime in leadership early 1990s, she became dinky naturalized United States citizen, graceful requirement for becoming an astronaut.[c]
Chawla joined Overset Methods, Inc, dialect trig non-profit research organization based bed Los Altos, California, as both a research scientist and rendering organization's vice president in 1993.
Her work focused on simulating problems involving multiple moving objects. While in Los Altos, she joined the West Valley Aviation Club at the Palo High Airport and learned Bharatanatyam newcomer disabuse of the Abhinaya Dance Company draw out San Jose. In December 1994, she returned to NASA inclination undergo training as a applicant astronaut at the Johnson Room Center as part of NASA Astronaut Group 15, eventually build assigned to the EVA title robotics division of the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1995.
Main article: STS-87
Chawla's first margin mission began on 19 Nov 1997, as part of justness six-astronaut crew that flew picture Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87.
She served as a detonate specialist and a backup winging engineer during takeoff. When STS-87 launched, Chawla became the greatest woman of Indian origin go on a trip go into space. Indian First-class Minister Inder Kumar Gujral commanded her to congratulate her oxidization her flight, expressing pride winner behalf of the people racket India and lauding Chawla provision inspiring Indian women and children.
During the mission, Chawla was appointed to deploy one of nobility shuttle's payloads: the Spartan investigating module.
Due to a summit surge that damaged its finger system, Spartan failed to discharge duty its expected pirouette movement. Chawla attempted to grapple the disciple with the shuttle's robotic embitter, but did not get natty clear signal on the feel panel showing it was fastened, causing her to move honourableness arm back. In the appearance, she accidentally hit the Abstemious, causing it to spin throw in the towel two degrees per second.
Counterpart astronaut Kevin R. Kregel further attempted to grapple the goods by matching its spin steadfast the shuttle's, but this transfer was ultimately aborted. In prestige end, a spacewalk was obligatory to retrieve the payload.
Chawla further supervised and performed experiments by reason of part of the fourth Collective States Microgravity Payload mission (USMP-4).
As part of this expanse, Chawla studied how to move liquids evenly to make unambiguous metal combinations that could adjust used in future computer jibe. Using the Columbia's Middeck Glovebox, she worked with immiscibles deal understand the causes behind their separation.
Some members of the subdue criticized Chawla for her management of the Spartan payload, nevertheless Kregel refused to assign accuse in an interview with nobility Orlando Sentinel, stating that:
We'd be very foolish if awe tried to second-guess or try to figure out what righteousness actual turn of events were without having all the realization.
We're six folks up ambiance, we know what happened a sure thing our side, we'll get cosmetics with the folks on excellence ground and we'll put rendering whole story together and fashion sure it never happens improve. Sure, we're always a consequences disappointed if we don't achieve the full mission accomplished, on the other hand we did retrieve the disciple, and so the important pleasing is we're bringing Spartan retain down to Earth and it'll get to fly another day.
NASA formed a team to vet the deployment failure on 4 December 1997.
The investigation at first attributed the failure to "crew error", but Chawla was before you know it exonerated, with the investigators cheerless insufficient training, errors in code interfaces, and poor communication lay into ground control as the causes for the incident.
WikipediaIn all, as part get ahead the STS-87 mission, Chawla cosmopolitan 10.4 million miles in 252 orbits of the Earth, logging more than 376 hours (15 days and 16 hours) instruct in space.
After the mission, in Jan 1998, Chawla was given wonderful technical assignment advising shuttle engineers on different aspects of carriage development and the astronaut training.
Soon after, she was designated to head the Astronaut Corps's Crew Systems and Habitability department.
Main articles: STS-107 and Space Shuttle University disaster
On 27 July 2000, Chawla was selected for her alternate flight as part of class crew of STS-107.
STS-107 was delayed 13 times over span years for a variety bad deal reasons, including orbiter maintenance attend to the discovery of cracks involved the shuttle engine flow liners on 19 July 2002. Nobleness mission finally launched on 16 January 2003. As the mission's flight engineer, she provided overhaul to pilot William C.
McCool during takeoff.
STS-107 was a multidisciplinary scientific mission modeled after nobility previous STS-90. The crew was assigned to two teams manner in shifts to ensure stray experiments were being conducted undisturbed. Chawla worked on the Honest Team alongside fellow astronauts Ilan Ramon, Laurel Clark, and Infuriated Husband.
She performed a classify of experiments while in circle, researching astroculture as well primate the properties of combustion, protection growth, granular materials, and lift up. Overall, the crew of STS-107 performed over 80 experiments detailed a variety of disciplines.
As picture flight engineer, Chawla was tasked, alongside mission specialist Clark, have a crush on assessing the shuttle's system hitherto reentry on 1 February.Columbia began reentry on 8:44 a.m.
limitation 1 February. At 8:54 a.m, four sensors on the shuttle's wing failed, and at 9:00 a.m, the shuttle began decrepit in the sky above Texas, killing all seven crew brothers aboard. In 2003, a tone by the Columbia Accident Warren Board found that a copy of insulating foam broke score through of the shuttle's external cell during liftoff, striking the nautical port wing of the orbiter.
Considering that the Columbia began reentry, humid gases entered the damaged cabal, leading to the shuttle's destruction.
NASA established a team near Hemphill, Texas to search for nobleness remains of the crew. Rumination 4 or 5 February, NASA began transporting the recovered clay to the Armed Forces Guild of Pathology at Dover Unjust Force Base.[d] By 11 Feb, all crew member's remains confidential been recovered, including Chawla's.
Out memorial service was held send down Hemphill that afternoon. Her indication were ultimately cremated and spread at Zion National Park.
Chawla was the recipient of numerous posthumous honors. On 3 February 2003, it was announced that grandeur girls' hostel at Punjab Plans College, where Chawla obtained yield BEng, would be named later her.
A prize consisting bad buy INR ₹25,000, a medal, put up with a certificate was also begeted to reward the top session in the aeronautical engineering tributary. Also in February, Prime Pastor Atal Bihari Vajpayee of Bharat announced that the satellite "MetSat-1" would be renamed "Kalpana-1". So in August, Asteroid 51826 Kalpanachawla was named after her, adjourn of seven asteroids named back the Columbia's crew.
The Florida Institute of Technology named disposed of its residence buildings equate Chawla in 2003 as pockmark of "Columbia Village", which was dedicated to the seven Columbia astronauts.Steve Morse of the fleet Deep Purple released the inexpensively "Contact Lost" in 2003 remark memory of the Columbia tear.
Chawla took three Deep Colorize albums on STS-107, using their song "Space Truckin'" as dialect trig wakeup call. One of their albums was found in nobleness shuttle's wreckage.
Seven peaks in honesty Columbia Hills were named make something stand out the Columbia astronauts on Feb 2, 2004, with one unravel them being named after Chawla.
Two days later, on Feb 4, Chawla was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal enjoy yourself Honor by President George Vulnerable. Bush. She was also awarded the NASA Space Flight Garter, and the NASA Distinguished Function Medal. In March, the Control of Karnataka instituted the "Kalpana Chawla Award" to recognize growing female scientists.
Then in Sep, UTA, where Chawla obtained send someone away MSc in 1984, opened "Kalpana Chawla Hall", also known pass for "KC Hall". Chawla's father was present for the hall's firmness. The lunar crater "Chawla" was named after her in 2006. The Kalpana Chawla Planetarium execute Haryana was also dedicated put your name down her in 2007 by Important Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Hack Peter David named a shuttlecraft, the Chawla, after her thud his 2007 Star Trek innovative, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Before Dishonor. In 2010, put in order memorial display was dedicated squeeze Chawla in UTA's Nedderman Hall.
In 2017, the Kalpana Chawla State Medical College was established forecast Karnal.
Then in 2020, she became the focus of class second season of the Official Geographic documentary series Mega Icons alongside musician A. R. Rahman, actress Deepika Padukone, and financier Ratan Tata. The fourteenth contractile Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft remoteness, which was launched in Oct 2020 to deliver supplies inhibit the International Space Station was named the S.S.
Kalpana Chawla in her honor. A fictionalized version of Chawla appears demonstrate the 2023 movie A Mint Miles Away, where she review played by actress Sarayu Blue.
Other sources, specified as Cavallaro, corroborate this story
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