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Kalpana Chawla came out of the small town of Karnal in Haryana and got the identity of a space angel. She became the first Indian-born woman to go to space. India is always proud. Impressed by the personality of Kalpana, kids are taking inspiration to make a career in space science.
Early Life and Education
She was born on 17 March 1962, she completed her schooling at Tagore Bal Niketan senior secondary school, Karnal. She used to visit local flying clubs with her father to see plans and was very impressed. Kalpana's father Banarsi Lal was a businessman, he wanted Kalpana to become a doctor or a teacher. Her mother was Sanjyoti Chawla. She picked her own name. The meaning of Kalpana is 'imagination or idea'. When Kalpana was young she started painting planes and developed an interest in flying. When she grew up she was interested in knowing about space.
She was always interested in space and engineering. She graduated in Aeronautical from Punjab University. In 1982, she obtained a master of science in Aerospace engineering at the University of Texas. Then Kalpana went for a master's in 1984. And took the admission for Ph.D. in the University of Colorado in1988. Apart from being an astronaut, Kalpna also likes dancing, poetry, and cycling.
Kalpana aimed to reach NASA in some way because from there only she could get to space closely. That's why she reached NASA in 1994. After passing a test at NASA she was selected as an astronaut. Then after one year of training, she gets selected as a crew representative. Now she worked on software for the space shuttle and robotics situational awareness.
Kalpana’s First Space Mission
Between 1994-1997, she worked on various types of space-related research. During this time, after passing many tests continuously. Kalpana finally got a chance to go to space for the first time in 1997. This was the first time that an Indian woman was getting a chance to go to space. It was a matter of pride for India. Kalpana was working as a mission specialist and prime robotic arm specialist.
In the entire program, flight STS-87 goes on the Columbia shuttle. They were to leave on 17 November 1997 and return to earth on 5 December 1997. While in this shuttle, she circled the earth from space 252 times. In her first space travel, Kalpana traveled 10.4 million miles. During this space journey, they had to collect information about the functions of satellites. Which had some defects due to some software problem, and to fix it, Kalpana got out of the Suttle with one of her companions. Which was later praised. They did experiments on plant reproduction in microgravity and materials behavior.
Kalpana said after her first space flight " on first night passes, I dimmed the lights in the flight desk and saw the stars. When you look at the stars and the galaxy, you feel that you are not just from any particular piece of land, but from the solar system."
Her Second Space Mission
Kalpana was second time selected for space travel in 2000. A total of seven members were selected for this mission. The pilot was also selected, who had flown with Kalpana on their first space travel. Due to some technical issues, the schedule got delayed. The first was to go in July 2002 but there were some shuttle engines, so the program was postponed. After all the final check-ups this mission was to start on 16 January 2003.
Before the completion of its 28th mission, STS-107, the spacecraft explored the Texan sky of Texas. It was re-entered into the atmosphere of the earth. In 30 seconds the entire shuttle and all seven crew members were destroyed.
The Accident
The space shuttle program manager Wany Hale wrote about this incident on his blog in 2013, after 10 years of the incident. Hale is the only person from NASA who publicly admitted fault. She said that the accident was caused by damage to the shuttle's left wing. Engineers only learn from examining some of the shuttle's post-take-off data.
Investigation
The investigation revealed a piece of projective form. The size of a briefcase was the actual cause of the Columbia shuttle disaster. The left wing of the shuttle was banged during take-off. It made a hole in the protective tiles, leaving the shuttle unsafe to re-enter the earth's atmosphere. Columbia was a victim of the accident in 2003, but its memories have made people interested in space technology.
NASA knew that the astronaut continued in the shadows of death for 16 days. But why did not tell anyone? Wayne had his views about that. NASA scientist teams did not want the astronauts on the mission to live with the fear of death at the last moment of their life. The damage was so big that it could not be repaired. According to Wayne Hale, if the travelers of Columbia knew about the damage, they could have survived in space as long as they had oxygen.
The Columbia crew tested technology that NASA wanted to recycle water on the new intentional station. Also, the flight carried a large pressurized chamber called the SpaceHab research module. It carried out experiments on biological and health science. They worked 24 hours a day in two alternate shifts and conducted 80 experiments successfully.
NASA Knew About the Shuttle
NASA suspended space shuttle flights for more than two years after the death of passengers. The space shuttle Columbia was the cause of the disaster and was investigated. It was the second major explosion for the space shuttle program NASA, following the 1986 disaster of the shuttle Challenger.
Shortly after this disaster, the seven astronauts orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter were named in the honor of the crew members. In memory of the first anniversary of the Columbia Shuttle disaster, NASA named the seven hills on Mars, for those seven brave souls of Columbia.
Bottom Line
On 5 February 2003, PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced India's meteorological series of the first satellite " MetSat". It launched in 2002, and was renamed," Kalpna-1". The Kalpana Chawla award was started by the government of Karnataka in 2004 to encourage young women in science.
Chawla lives in people's hearts. Her hard work and talent have inspired youngsters in India and the world to consider a career as an astronaut. Over Chawla's two missions, she spent 30 days, 14 hours, and 54 minutes in space.
Written by Jyoti Malik
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