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An inspiration and idol to countless girls, Kalpana Chawla was the first Indian woman to fly in space. Born on 17 March 1962, in Karnal, Haryana. She acquired her Bachelor of Engineering degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh in 1982. After completing her graduation in Engineering, she moved from India to the US in 1982 and made her first space trip aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997. During her first space mission, she also spoke to the then Prime Minister of India Inderjit K Gujral from the orbit. Chawla's second space trip in 2003 ended...

Discovery, the first space shuttle to be launched since the Columbia crash two years ago, will carry a photograph of India-born astronaut Kalpana Chawla and mementos of her colleagues who perished in the tragedy. Jean P Harrison, widower of Chawla, said he was sending a photograph of his wife aboard Discovery, which is poised for liftoff day with a five-man, two-woman crew on Wednesday. The picture of Kalpana is from her college days in India, where she is sitting in her dorm room surrounded by photographs of aircraft and one of a space shuttle. The countdown for the Discovery launch...

The Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster happend on Saturday 1st, February, 2003 and was the second Space Shuttle Disaster and the first shuttle lost on landing. There was shock around the world over the tragedy. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Space Shuttle Columbia was launched on January 16th, 2003 at 9.39am CST. Columbia (Flight STS-107) was on a 16-day science research mission in Earth orbit which performed experiments in space. It was the 113th mission. Columbia was the oldest space shuttle in the fleet of four. It was the first space shuttle to be launched in Earth orbit in 1981. The crew of Space Shuttle...

NASA has dedicated its new Altix supercomputer 'KC' to the memory of India-born astronaut Kalpana Chawla, one of the seven crew members aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia which disintegrated midair in February last year. Naming the new supercomputer 'Kalpana' follows a long tradition at NASA's Ames Research Centre of calling its new supercomputers after pioneers in the supercomputer industry or individuals who have significantly contributed to research at the aircraft research laboratory. "It is indeed an honour to name NASA's new SGI Altix 3000 supercomputer after Kalpana Chawla," said Ames Centre Director G Scott Hubbard. "She was not only a...

Almost one and a half years after the tragic disaster of the Nasa space shuttle Columbia, one of its crew, the late Indian-American astronaut Kalpana Chawla has been honoured by the New York City administration. 74th Street in the Jackson Heights area of the city has now been renamed, 74 Street Kalpana Chawla Way. Kalpana Chawla was one of the seven astronauts killed when the Colombia shuttle disintegrated in mid-air on 1 February, 2003. The Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, officially unveiled the Kalpana Chawla Way on Sunday at a simple but well attended ceremony including hundreds of...

<p>The Hindu Temple and Community Center held a prayer service for Kalpana Chawla, one of the seven astronauts who perished on space shuttle Columbia and had attended the temple when she lived in the Bay Area.</p> <p>Singing Hindi devotional songs to the Lord Rama and ringing brass bells in ritual, about 300 people gathered Sunday afternoon at the Hindu Temple and Community Center in Sunnyvale to remember Kalpana Chawla and six other astronauts who perished in the space shuttle Columbia.</p>