Women’s History Month Heroes You Should Know: Kalpana Chawla
Happy Women’s History Month! This is the 7th blog of a series of blogs called “Women’s History Month Heroes You Should Know”. This series will be a collection of my research into little-known American women who have made history in one way or another (or multiple ways!).
The focus of today’s blog is Kalpana Chawla, the first woman of Indian descent to travel to space.
This is her story.
Education
According to northropgrumman.com, Kalpana Chawla was born in 1962 in Kamal, Haryana, India. Growing up having dreams of space travel, she went on to attend India’s Punjab Engineering College until 1982 when she graduated with a bachelor’s in aeronautical engineering. Shortly after, Chawla moved to the United States to receive a Master’s in aerospace engineering at the University of Texas and a Ph.D. in the same subject from the University of Colorado.
Career with NASA
Chawla received licenses to pilot single and multi-engine aircrafts. She also became a certified flight instructor. At the time she finished school with a Ph.D., Chawla began a career with NASA in California as a powered-lift computational fluid dynamics researcher. In 1991, she became a naturalized American citizen and applied to NASA’s astronaut corps.
First Female Astronaut of Indian Descent
After applying, she began work and research with Overset Methods Inc. in 1993 as the Vice President of the company. One year later, she was selected by NASA to train as a mission specialist for the 1996 mission aboard Space Shuttle Columbia. Through this mission, Chawla became the first woman of Indian descent to travel to space.
2nd NASA Mission
Her second mission to space was the STS-107 mission aboard Space Shuttle Columbia. The main goal of the mission was to conduct more than 80 experiments studying astronaut health and safety. Tragically, Chawla died when Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry into the atmosphere at the conclusion of the mission. Her last mission provided extensive research into the study of space and this is where her legacy will always remain. Read more about Kalpana Chawla here.
Read another post from the blog series “Women’s History Month Heroes You Should Know” here.
