India remembers astronaut Kalpana Chawla on her birth anniversary

“My tributes to Late #KalpanaChawla, first Indian Woman Astronaut, on her birth anniversary. She continues to be an incredible role-model & inspiration as she showed the world that nothing is impossible for women if they have strong will.@NASA,” Javadekar tweeted.

Born and brought up in Karnal, Chawla had a degree in aerospace engineering before moving on to join NASA. She lost her life in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster on February 1, 2003 which led to the death of six other astronauts. The Indian astronaut died just 16 minutes before landing as the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas during its re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.  In what would turn out to be her last communication with her family, Kalpana had said, “Our mission is successful and we are all fine here.”

Astronaut Kalpana Chawla, STS-107 mission specialist, prepares to simulate a parachute drop into water during an emergency bailout training session in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) near the Johnson Space Center (JSC). (Source: NASA)

Related | Kalpana Chawla – the woman who loved to fly: All about India’s first woman astronaut

Called KC by her friends, Kalpana was admired for her kindness and her constant striving for perfection. Astronaut Office Chief Kent Rominger said in a NASA report, “She had a terrific sense of humour and loved flying small airplanes with her husband and loved flying in space. Flying was her passion. She would often remind her crew as her training flow would be delayed and become extended, she would say, ‘Man, you are training to fly in space. What more could you want?’”