Kalpana Chawla

Kalpana Chawla
Born	(1962-03-17)March 17, 1962 Karnal, Punjab, India (now in Haryana, India)
Died	February 1, 2003(2003-02-01) (aged 40) Aboard Space Shuttle Columbia over Texas, U.S.
Alma mater	Punjab Engineering College University of Texas at Arlington University of Colorado at Boulder
Awards
Space career
Time in space	31 days, 14 hours, 54 minutes
Selection	1994 NASA Group
Missions	STS-87 STS-107
Mission insignia

Kalpana Chawla (March 17, 1962 – February 1, 2003) was an American astronaut of Indian origin. She was the first Indian-American astronaut and the first Indian woman to go into space. She was married to flight instructor Jean-Pierre Harrison. She first flew in 1997 on the Space Shuttle mission STS-87, and flew again on the STS-107 mission in 2003, during which she was killed while the spacecraft was returning to Earth.

Early life

Chawla was born in Karnal, Haryana. She got a degree in aeronautical engineering from Punjab Engineering elementary school. She moved to America and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in the year 1990s. She earned a master's degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Texas. She got her doctorate from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1993. She began flying with people for NASA at the Ames Research the same year.

Career

In 2000, Chawla was selected for her second voyage into space, serving again as a mission specialist on STS-107. The mission was delayed several times, and finally launched in 2003. Over the course of the 16-day flight, the crew completed more than 80 experiments. Kalpana was one of the seven people killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster on February 1, 2003.