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Kalpana Chawla (17 March 1962 –1 February 2003) was an Indian-born American astronaut and aerospace engineer who was the first woman of Indian origin to fly to space. Chawla expressed an interest in aerospace engineering from an early age and took engineering classes at Dayal Singh College and Punjab Engineering College in India. She then traveled to the United States, where she earned her MSc and PhD, becoming a naturalized United States citizen in the early 1990s.
Kalpana Chawla | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 17 March 1962 |
| Died | 1 February 2003 (aged 40) Over Texas, U.S |
| Cause of death | Space Shuttle Columbia disaster |
| Resting place | Zion National Park, Utah, U.S. |
| Education | Punjab Engineering College (BEng) University of Texas, Arlington (MS) University of Colorado, Boulder (PhD) |
| Awards | |
| Space career | |
| NASA astronaut | |
Time in space | 31d 14h 54m[1] |
| Selection | NASA Group 15 (1994) |
| Missions | STS-87 STS-107 |
Mission insignia |   |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Aerospace engineering |
| Thesis | Computation of Dynamics and Control of Unsteady Vortical Flows (1988) |
| Doctoral advisor | Chuen-Yen Chow |
She first flew on Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997 as a mission specialist and robotic arm operator aboard STS-87. Her role in the flight caused some controversy due to the failed deployment of the Shuttle-Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy ("Spartan") module. Chawla's second flight was in 2003 on STS-107, the final flight of Columbia. She was one of the seven crew members who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster when the spacecraft disintegrated during its reentry into the Earth's atmosphere on 1 February 2003.
Chawla was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, the NASA Space Flight Medal, and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal. Several buildings, spacecraft, and extraterrestrial landmarks are named in her honor.
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Kalpana Chawla was born on 17 March 1962 in Karnal, Haryana, India to Banarsi Lal Chawla, the owner of a tire manufacturing plant, and Sanjogta Kharbanda.[a][5] Her family were Punjabi Hindus originally from Gujranwala, Pakistan who traveled to India as refugees during partition.[6] She had three siblings: sisters Sunita and Dipa and brother Sanjay.[4] As a child, she expressed interest in aerospace engineering, but was dismissed by her father, who said that "only guys want to do [aerospace engineering]" and instead recommended that she become a doctor or teacher.[7] She attended the Tagore Baal Niketan Senior Secondary School in Karnal, graduating in 1976 “near the top of her class”.[8]
Chawla took basic engineering courses at Dayal Singh College in Karnal.[9] She then attended the aeronautical engineering school at the Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh, where she learned the principles of theoretical aerodynamics.[10] She was one of four women in the program and the first female student to take aerospace engineering classes at the college.[11] Some professors discouraged her from studying aerospace engineering, claiming that it was not suitable for women and suggesting electrical engineering instead. She graduated from the college in 1982 with a Bachelor of Engineering (BEng).[12]
Because she could not take further specialized aerospace engineering courses in India, Chawla traveled to the United States to continue her education in 1982, again facing opposition from her father.[8] She earned her MSc from the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) in 1984 with her thesis Optimization of cross flow fan housing for airplane wing installation.[b][14] She met her husband, pilot Jean-Pierre Harrison, while at UTA, and the two married on 2 December 1983.[11]
Chawla then attended the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder), where she first decided that she wanted to join the space program, receiving her PhD in 1984 with the thesis Computation of dynamics and control of unsteady vortical flows.[15] Her thesis director was Chuen-Yen Chow.[16] While attending CU Boulder, Chawla began taking flying lessons at the Boulder Municipal Airport, eventually receiving commercial pilot's licenses permitting her to fly various types of land and seaplanes as well as gliders.[17] She later became certified as a flight instructor for single-engine airplanes and flight instruments.[18]
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Before NASA
In 1988, Chawla began working at NASA's Ames Research Center, where she initially conducted computational fluid dynamics research on vertical and/or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) concepts. She subsequently studied how to use multiple computers to solve fluid flow problems, testing these methods by calculating powered lift effects.[19] Sometime in the early 1990s, she became a naturalized United States citizen, a requirement for becoming an astronaut.[c]
Chawla joined Overset Methods, Inc, a non-profit research organization based in Los Altos, California, as both a research scientist and the organization's vice president in 1993.[21] Her work focused on simulating problems involving multiple moving objects.[22] While in Los Altos, she joined the West Valley Flying Club at the Palo Alto Airport and learned Bharatanatyam from the Abhinaya Dance Company in San Jose.[23] In December 1994, she returned to NASA to undergo training as a candidate astronaut at the Johnson Space Center as part of NASA Astronaut Group 15, eventually being assigned to the EVA and robotics division of the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1995.[24]
First space mission
Chawla's first space mission began on 19 November 1997, as part of the six-astronaut crew that flew the Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87. She served as a mission specialist and a backup flight engineer during takeoff. When STS-87 launched, Chawla became the first woman of Indian origin to go into space. Indian Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral called her to congratulate her on her flight, expressing pride on behalf of the people of India and lauding Chawla for inspiring Indian women and children.[11]
During the mission, Chawla was assigned to deploy one of the shuttle's payloads: the Spartan research module. Due to a power surge that damaged its control system, Spartan failed to perform its expected pirouette movement. Chawla attempted to grapple the satellite with the shuttle's robotic arm, but did not get a clear signal on the control panel showing it was secured, causing her to move the arm back. In the process, she accidentally hit the Spartan, causing it to spin at two degrees per second. Fellow astronaut Kevin R. Kregel also attempted to grapple the payload by matching its spin with the shuttle's, but this movement was ultimately aborted. In the end, a spacewalk was required to retrieve the payload.[25]
Chawla also supervised and performed experiments as part of the fourth United States Microgravity Payload mission (USMP-4). As part of this mission, Chawla studied how to mix liquids evenly to make specific metal combinations that could be used in future computer chips. Using the Columbia's Middeck Glovebox, she worked with immiscibles to understand the causes behind their separation.[26]
Some members of the press criticized Chawla for her handling of the Spartan payload, but Kregel refused to assign blame in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel, stating that:
We'd be very foolish if we tried to second-guess or tried to figure out what the actual turn of events were without having all the information... We're six folks up here, we know what happened on our side, we'll get together with the folks on the ground and we'll put the whole story together and make sure it never happens again. Sure, we're always a bit disappointed if we don't get the full mission accomplished, but we did retrieve the satellite, and so the important thing is we're bringing Spartan back down to Earth and it'll get to fly another day.[27]
NASA formed a team to investigate the deployment failure on 4 December 1997. The investigation initially attributed the failure to "crew error", but Chawla was ultimately exonerated, with the investigators citing insufficient training, errors in software interfaces, and poor communication with ground control as the causes for the incident.[28] In all, as part of the STS-87 mission, Chawla traveled 10.4 million miles in 252 orbits of the Earth, logging more than 376 hours (15 days and 16 hours) in space.[22]
After the mission, in January 1998, Chawla was given a technical assignment advising shuttle engineers on different aspects of payload development and the astronaut experience.[29] Soon after, she was selected to head the Astronaut Corps's Crew Systems and Habitability department.[30]
Second space mission and death
On 27 July 2000, Chawla was selected for her second flight as part of the crew of STS-107.[31] STS-107 was delayed 13 times over two years for a variety of reasons, including orbiter maintenance and the discovery of cracks in the shuttle engine flow liners on 19 July 2002. The mission finally launched on 16 January 2003.[32] As the mission's flight engineer, she provided assistance to pilot William C. McCool during takeoff.[33]
STS-107 was a multidisciplinary scientific mission modeled after the previous STS-90.[34] The crew was assigned to two teams working in shifts to ensure that experiments were being conducted nonstop. Chawla worked on the Red Team alongside fellow astronauts Ilan Ramon, Laurel Clark, and Rick Husband.[35] She performed a variety of experiments while in orbit, researching astroculture as well as the properties of combustion, crystal growth, granular materials, and mist.[36] Overall, the crew of STS-107 performed over 80 experiments in a variety of disciplines.[37]
As the flight engineer, Chawla was tasked, alongside mission specialist Clark, with assessing the shuttle's system before reentry on 1 February.[38] Columbia began reentry on 8:44 a.m. on 1 February. At 8:54 a.m, four sensors on the shuttle's wing failed, and at 9:00 a.m, the shuttle began disintegrating in the sky above Texas, killing all seven crew members aboard.[39] In 2003, a report by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board found that a piece of insulating foam broke off of the shuttle's external tank during liftoff, striking the left wing of the orbiter.[40] When the Columbia began reentry, hot gases entered the damaged wing, leading to the shuttle's destruction.[41]
NASA established a team near Hemphill, Texas to search for the remains of the crew.[42] On 4 or 5 February, NASA began transporting the recovered remains to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology at Dover Air Force Base.[d][43] By 11 February, all crew member's remains had been recovered, including Chawla's. A memorial service was held in Hemphill that afternoon.[44] Her remains were ultimately cremated and scattered at Zion National Park.[45]
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Chawla was the recipient of numerous posthumous honors. On 3 February 2003, it was announced that the girls' hostel at Punjab Engineering College, where Chawla obtained her BEng, would be named after her. A prize consisting of INR ₹25,000, a medal, and a certificate was also created to reward the top students in the aeronautical engineering department.[46] Also in February, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of India announced that the satellite "MetSat-1" would be renamed "Kalpana-1".[47] Then in August, Asteroid 51826 Kalpanachawla was named after her, one of seven asteroids named after the Columbia's crew.[48] The Florida Institute of Technology named one of its residence buildings after Chawla in 2003 as part of "Columbia Village", which was dedicated to the seven Columbia astronauts.[49] Steve Morse of the band Deep Purple released the song "Contact Lost" in 2003 in memory of the Columbia disaster.[50] Chawla took three Deep Purple albums on STS-107, using their song "Space Truckin'" as a wakeup call.[51] One of their albums was found in the shuttle's wreckage.[52]
Seven peaks in the Columbia Hills were named after the Columbia astronauts on February 2, 2004, with one of them being named after Chawla.[53] Two days later, on February 4, Chawla was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor by President George W. Bush.[54] She was also awarded the NASA Space Flight Medal, and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal.[22] In March, the Government of Karnataka instituted the "Kalpana Chawla Award" to recognize young female scientists.[55] Then in September, UTA, where Chawla obtained her MSc in 1984, opened "Kalpana Chawla Hall", also known as "KC Hall". Chawla's father was present for the hall's dedication.[56] The lunar crater "Chawla" was named after her in 2006.[57] The Kalpana Chawla Planetarium in Haryana was also dedicated to her in 2007 by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.[58] Novelist Peter David named a shuttlecraft, the Chawla, after her in his 2007 Star Trek novel, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Before Dishonor.[59] In 2010, a memorial display was dedicated to Chawla in UTA's Nedderman Hall.[60]
In 2017, the Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College was established in Karnal.[61] Then in 2020, she became the focus of the second season of the National Geographic documentary series Mega Icons alongside musician A. R. Rahman, actress Deepika Padukone, and industrialist Ratan Tata.[62] The fourteenth contracted Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft mission, which was launched in October 2020 to deliver supplies to the International Space Station was named the S.S. Kalpana Chawla in her honor.[63] A fictionalized version of Chawla appears in the 2023 movie A Million Miles Away, where she is played by actress Sarayu Blue.[64]
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- Some sources, such as Launius and Furuyama, report Chawla's birthdate as 1 July 1961.[2] According to Jean-Pierre Harrison, Chawla's husband, Chawla used 1 July as her birth date to enroll in school a year in advance of when she otherwise would have.[3] Other sources, such as Cavallaro, corroborate this story[4]
- NASA says that she received her MSc from the "University of Texas," which is generally used to refer to the University of Texas at Austin, but most sources indicate that she attended UTA, and that is where her thesis was published.[13]
- Chien says she was naturalized in 1990 while Jones and Cavallaro say she was naturalized in 1991.[20]
- Chien gives the date as 5 February while Leinbach & Ward give the date as 4 February.[43]
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