Shuttle Victim Never Said Goodbye To Family

WLKY ^ | 2/1/03

[hoosierskypilot]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Seven astronauts -- six Americans and Israel's first astronaut -- died Saturday morning when space shuttle Columbia broke up in flames about 200,000 feet over Texas just minutes before it was due to land in Florida.

One of them -- Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian-born woman in space -- never got to say goodbye to her family.

Chawla (pictured) was a new kind of heroine in India, which has launched satellites for years and is preparing for a moon orbit this decade. She died Saturday with her six colleagues when the space shuttle disintegrated over Texas.

A family friend says her parents missed saying goodbye to her before the shuttle launch last month, because they got to NASA late.

To be close to someone involved in such a project, her brother Sanjay says, "you have to be prepared inside for this kind of news."

Chawla, 41, emigrated to the United States in the 1980s and took American citizenship. She studied aeronautical engineering and became an astronaut in 1994.

The Columbia disaster has left the United States in mourning a little over 17 years after the space shuttle Challenger exploded on Jan. 28, 1986.

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[valkyrieanne]

Rest in peace, Kalpana.

[dennisw]

Sat Feb 1, 2:58 PM ET

Mission specialist Kalpana Chawla is shown during a training session at the Kennedy Space Center (news - web sites) in Cape Canaveral, Fla. in this Dec. 17, 2002 file photo. Chawla is one of the seven astronauts killed when the space shuttle Columbia broke apart in flames 200,000 feet over Texas on Saturday just minutes before they were to land in Florida. (AP Photo/NASA, File)

Sat Feb 1,10:18 AM ET

In this image from television on Jan 29, 2003, shuttle mission specialists Kalpana Chawla stores supplies aboard the shuttle Columbia. The six Americans and one Israeli aboard Columbia marked their 13th day in space Wednesday. Their round-the-clock laboratory research mission, featuring more than 80 experiments, is due to end with a landing back at Kennedy Space Center (news - web sites) on Saturday, Feb.1, 2003. NASA (news - web sites) lost communication with space shuttle Columbia as the ship soared over Texas several minutesbefore landing Saturday morning Feb. 1. It wasn't immediately clear if there was a problem with the shuttle. (AP Photo/NASA TV)

Sat Feb 1,11:02 AM ET

Space Shuttle Columbia Astronaut Kalpana Chawla, looks over a procedures checklist in the SPACEHAB Research Double Module aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia ON January 27, 2003. The NASA (news - web sites) lost contact with the shuttle at around 9 a.m./1400 GMT, about 16 minutes before its scheduled landing at Kennedy Space Center (news - web sites). Columbia is NASA's oldest shuttle and first flew in 1981.

Sat Feb 1,11:23 AM ET

Space Shuttle Columbia astronaut Kalpana Chawla is shown during a news conference Jan. 3, 2003 at Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA (news - web sites) declared an emergency and feared the worst after losing communication with space shuttle Columbia as the ship and its seven astronauts soared over Texas several minutes before its expected landing Saturday, Feb. 1, 2003. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, FILE)