Happy Birthday Kalpana Chawla, first Indian woman Astronaut

Lucknow: Its 53^rd birthday of Kalpana Chawla, the Indian Astronaut on Thursday. Chawla was born to Banarasi Lal Chawla and Sanjyothi on March 17, 1962 at Karnal, Haryana.

On her birthday Newztrack.com wishes her a very Happy Birthday and brings to you some very interesting facts about the courageous astronaut.

About Kalpana Chawla

• Kalpana Chawla was an Indo-American Astronaut.
• She is the first Indian woman in space.
• Kalpana has three siblings Sunita, Deepa and Sanjay.
• Chawla married Jean Piere Harrison in 1983. He was her flying instructor.

Schooling and Education:

• Schooling from Tagore Bal Niketan Senior Secondary School, Karnal.
• Acquired bachelor’s degree Aero Engineering from Punjab Engineering College.
• Migrated to United States in 1982.
• Completed her Masters in Aerospace Engineering from University of Texas.
• Did PhD in Aerospace Engineering in 1988 from University of Colorado.

Career:

• Began working at NASA Ames Research Center.
• Did a Computation Fluid Dynamics (CFD) research while working at NASA.
• Joined Overset Methods, Inc. as a Vice President and Research Scientist in
• She first flew on Space Shuttle Columbia STS-87 as a Mission Specialist in
• She was the first Indian-American astronaut and the first Indian woman on space.
• Travelled 4 million miles in 252 orbits of the earth logging more than 372 hours in space.
• Was selected for second flight as part of the crew in 2000 which began on January 16, 2003.

Awards

• Congressional Space Medal of Honor
• NASA Space Flight Medal
• NASA Distinguished Service Medal

Kalpana died along with all six other crew members in the Space Shuttle Columbia on the ill-fated STS-107 mission on February 1, 2003.