Kalpana Chawala

Kalpana Chawla (July 1 1961 - Februarary 1 2003) was an Indian American astronaut working for NASA. She was one of the seven crew members who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.
Kalpana Chawla was born in Karnal, Haryana, India on July 1 1961 to Banarsi Lal Chawla and Sanjyoti. She had two sisters - Sunita and Dipa and a brother - Sanjay. She became an US citizen in 1990.
Kalpana Chawla completed her early schooling in the Tagore Public School, Karnal. She earned her Bachelor of Engineering degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Punjab Engineering College in 1982. She moved to the US in 1982 and earned a M.S. in aerospace engineering in 1984 from the University of Texas, Arlington. Chawla went onto earn a second M.S. in 1986 and a Ph.D in aerospace engineering in 1988 from the University of Colorado,Boulder. Later that year she started working for NASA as the vice president of Over-Set Methods Inc. where she did CFD research on Short Take off and Landing. Chawla held a certified Flight Instructor rating for airplanes and gliders and a Commercial Pilot rating for single and multi engined airplanes, seaplanes and gliders. She held an FCC issued Technician Class Amateur Radio licence.
Kalpana Chawla joined the NASA 'Astronaut Corps' in March 1995 and was selected for her first flight in 1996. She had travelled 10.4 million kms, as much as 252 times around the earth.
Her first mission began on November 19 1997 as part of the six member crew that flew the Columbia flight STS - 87. Chawla was the first Indian born woman and the second Indian to go into space, following cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma who had travelled in space in 1984 in a spacecraft. Chawla's responsibilities included deploying the Spartan Satellite which had malfunctioned necissitating a space walk by Winston Scott and Takao Doi to capture the satellite.
A five month NASA investigation had fully exonarated Chawla by identifying errors in Software Interface and defied procedures in flight crew and ground control.
In 2000, Chawla was selected for her second flight mission, STS - 107. This mission was repeatedly delayed due to scheduling conflicts and technical problems such as the July 2002 discoveryo of cracks on the shuttle engine flow liners. On January 16 2003, Chawla finally returned to space aboard the Columbia on the ill fated STS - 107 mission. Her responsibilities included micro gravity experiments on which the crew conducted nearly 80 experiments studying, earth and space science, advanced technology developement and astronaut health and safety.
Kalpana Chawla died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, which took place on February 1 2003. THe space shuttle disintregrated over Texas during re entry into the earth's atmosphere, with the loss of the lives of all the seven crew members, shortly before it was scheduled to finish its 28th mission, STS - 107.