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The only Indian woman to travel into space, Kalpana Chawla was a national hero in India. When she was born July 1, 1961, in Karnal, India, Chawla's mother was surprised to see that the infant who had kicked so furiously from inside was a girl. Chawla continued to kick and fight her way to gain privileges denied to girls in India. She was the only girl in her class who was selected to attend Punjab Engineering College, attending over the objections of her father. She left India in 1982 to attend college in the United States. There she met her husband, who encouraged her to fly.
A practicing Hindu and strict vegetarian, Chawla continued to study and work in the field of aeronautics. In 1994, on a whim, she applied to NASA, never expecting to be selected into their astronaut program. At five-feet tall, she was too small to be able to work in the space station, which was her dream. Since the white spacesuit that astronauts were required to wear when transferring from the shuttle to the station didn't fit, Chawla was relegated to internal duties inside the shuttle. She first went into space as a mission specialist on the Columbia Space Shuttle in November, 1997.
The Columbia Space Shuttle, which departed on January 16, 2003, and ended tragically in an explosion 16 days later, was Chawla's second mission. Chawla was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, the NASA Space Flight Medal and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal.
Last updated: June 28, 2007.
