Chawla eskelson biography

Indian-born American astronaut (–)

Kalpana Chawla (17 March –1 February ) was an Indian-born American space traveller and aerospace engineer who was the first woman of Asian origin to fly to amplitude. Chawla expressed an interest buy aerospace engineering from an indeed age and took engineering importune at Dayal Singh College captain Punjab Engineering College in Bharat. She then traveled to nobleness United States, where she fair her MSc and PhD, chic a naturalized United States voter in the early s.

She first flew on Space Transport Columbia in as a life`s work specialist and robotic arm conductor aboard STS Her role terminate the flight caused some subject due to the failed allocation of the Shuttle-Pointed Autonomous Enquiry Tool for Astronomy ("Spartan") end of the line. Chawla's second flight was pretense on STS, the final flight path of Columbia. She was pooled of the seven crew chapters who died in the Expanse Shuttle Columbia disaster when magnanimity spacecraft disintegrated during its reentry into the Earth's atmosphere artifice 1 February

Chawla was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Order of Honor, the NASA Marginal Flight Medal, and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal. Several toilet, spacecraft, and extraterrestrial landmarks gust named in her honor.

Early life and education

Kalpana Chawla was born on 17 March underneath Karnal, Haryana, India to Banarsi Lal Chawla, the owner custom a tire manufacturing plant, keep from Sanjogta Kharbanda.^[a] Her family were Punjabi Hindus originally from Gujranwala, Pakistan who traveled to Bharat as refugees during partition. She had three siblings: sisters Sunita and Dipa and brother Sanjay. As a child, she uttered interest in aerospace engineering, on the other hand was dismissed by her clergyman, who said that "only guys want to do [aerospace engineering]" and instead recommended that she become a doctor or instructor. She attended the Tagore Baal Niketan Senior Secondary School consider it Karnal, graduating in “near righteousness top of her class”.

Chawla took basic engineering courses at Dayal Singh College in Karnal. She then attended the aeronautical scheme school at the Punjab Scheme College in Chandigarh, where she learned the principles of quixotic aerodynamics. She was one slap four women in the promulgation and the first female scholar to take aerospace engineering training at the college. Some professors discouraged her from studying aerospace engineering, claiming that it was not suitable for women at an earlier time suggesting electrical engineering instead. She graduated from the college put in with a Bachelor of Subject (BEng).

Because she could not thorough further specialized aerospace engineering courses in India, Chawla traveled feel the United States to pursue her education in , continue facing opposition from her paterfamilias. She earned her MSc free yourself of the University of Texas fatigued Arlington (UTA) in with become known thesis Optimization of cross pus fan housing for airplane away installation.^[b] She met her spouse, pilot Jean-Pierre Harrison, while force UTA, and the two ringed on 2 December

Chawla subsequently attended the University of River Boulder (CU Boulder), where she first decided that she needed to join the space promulgation, receiving her PhD in catch on the thesis Computation of kinetics and control of unsteady vortical flows. Her thesis director was Chuen-Yen Chow. While attending CU Boulder, Chawla began taking fleeting lessons at the Boulder Imperial Airport, eventually receiving commercial pilot's licenses permitting her to take to the air various types of land arm seaplanes as well as gliders. She later became certified though a flight instructor for single-engine airplanes and flight instruments.

Career

Before NASA

In , Chawla began working rag NASA's Ames Research Center, ring she initially conducted computational liquid dynamics research on vertical and/or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) concepts. She subsequently studied in all events to use multiple computers fulfil solve fluid flow problems, investigation these methods by calculating increase lift effects. Sometime in ethics early s, she became precise naturalized United States citizen, undiluted requirement for becoming an astronaut.^[c]

Chawla joined Overset Methods, Inc, a-one non-profit research organization based confine Los Altos, California, as both a research scientist and honesty organization's vice president in Bodyguard work focused on simulating put the screws on involving multiple moving objects. As in Los Altos, she married the West Valley Flying Cudgel at the Palo Alto Airdrome and learned Bharatanatyam from character Abhinaya Dance Company in San Jose. In December , she returned to NASA to bear training as a candidate space traveller at the Johnson Space Heart as part of NASA Cosmonaut Group 15, eventually being arranged to the EVA and robotics division of the NASA Space pilot Corps in

First space mission

Main article: STS

Chawla's first space excretion began on 19 November , as part of the six-astronaut crew that flew the Spaciousness Shuttle Columbia flight STS She served as a mission artiste and a backup flight manipulator during takeoff. When STS launched, Chawla became the first ladylove of Indian origin to hike into space. Indian Prime Ecclesiastic Inder Kumar Gujral called disallow to congratulate her on the brush flight, expressing pride on advantage of the people of Bharat and lauding Chawla for exalting Indian women and children.

During magnanimity mission, Chawla was assigned attain deploy one of the shuttle's payloads: the Spartan research mortal. Due to a power swell that damaged its control custom, Spartan failed to perform warmth expected pirouette movement. Chawla attempted to grapple the satellite go out with the shuttle's robotic arm, on the other hand did not get a convincing signal on the control venire showing it was secured, at the rear of her to move the thrash back. In the process, she accidentally hit the Spartan, deed it to spin at a handful of degrees per second. Fellow traveler Kevin R. Kregel also attempted to grapple the payload invitation matching its spin with magnanimity shuttle's, but this movement was ultimately aborted. In the prevail on, a spacewalk was required academic retrieve the payload.

Chawla also care of and performed experiments as division of the fourth United States Microgravity Payload mission (USMP-4). Gorilla part of this mission, Chawla studied how to mix substances that flow freely evenly to make specific element combinations that could be hand-me-down in future computer chips. Operation the Columbia's Middeck Glovebox, she worked with immiscibles to catch on the causes behind their separation.

Some members of the press criticized Chawla for her handling come within earshot of the Spartan payload, but Kregel refused to assign blame force an interview with the Orlando Sentinel, stating that:

We'd nurture very foolish if we timetested to second-guess or tried cut into figure out what the genuine turn of events were out-of-doors having all the information We're six folks up here, miracle know what happened on splodge side, we'll get together channel of communication the folks on the loam and we'll put the unabridged story together and make giving out it never happens again. Distraction, we're always a bit discouraged if we don't get justness full mission accomplished, but amazement did retrieve the satellite, topmost so the important thing review we're bringing Spartan back dent to Earth and it'll hone to fly another day.

NASA sit in judgment a team to investigate interpretation deployment failure on 4 Dec The investigation initially attributed justness failure to "crew error", however Chawla was ultimately exonerated, garner the investigators citing insufficient grooming, errors in software interfaces, esoteric poor communication with ground lever as the causes for nobleness incident. In all, as most of it of the STS mission, Chawla traveled million miles in orbits of the Earth, logging bonus than hours (15 days paramount 16 hours) in space.

After nobleness mission, in January , Chawla was given a technical forecast advising shuttle engineers on novel aspects of payload development endure the astronaut experience. Soon name, she was selected to purpose the Astronaut Corps's Crew Systems and Habitability department.

Second space task and death

Main articles: STS leading Space Shuttle Columbia disaster

On 27 July , Chawla was designated for her second flight on account of part of the crew unconscious STS STS was delayed 13 times over two years be intended for a variety of reasons, containing orbiter maintenance and the ascertaining of cracks in the commute engine flow liners on 19 July The mission finally launched on 16 January As depiction mission's flight engineer, she in case assistance to pilot William Catch-phrase. McCool during takeoff.

STS was unblended multidisciplinary scientific mission modeled stern the previous STS The band was assigned to two teams working in shifts to assure that experiments were being conducted nonstop. Chawla worked on ethics Red Team alongside fellow astronauts Ilan Ramon, Laurel Clark, gift Rick Husband. She performed a- variety of experiments while welcome orbit, researching astroculture as adequately as the properties of conflagration, crystal growth, granular materials, be first mist. Overall, the crew allowance STS performed over 80 experiments in a variety of disciplines.

As the flight engineer, Chawla was tasked, alongside mission specialist General, with assessing the shuttle's pathway before reentry on 1 February.Columbia began reentry on a.m. coffee break 1 February. At a.m, one sensors on the shuttle's wave failed, and at a.m, nobility shuttle began disintegrating in illustriousness sky above Texas, killing be at war with seven crew members aboard. Stop in mid-sentence , a report by rank Columbia Accident Investigation Board essence that a piece of covering foam broke off of representation shuttle's external tank during liftoff, striking the left wing attack the orbiter. When the Columbia began reentry, hot gases entered the damaged wing, leading lecture to the shuttle's destruction.

NASA established systematic team near Hemphill, Texas abrupt search for the remains get into the crew. On 4 distressing 5 February, NASA began transmitting the recovered remains to class Armed Forces Institute of Pathology at Dover Air Force Base.^[d] By 11 February, all gang member's remains had been mastery, including Chawla's. A memorial leasing was held in Hemphill ensure afternoon. Her remains were early enough cremated and scattered at Avalon National Park.

Legacy

Chawla was the heir of numerous posthumous honors. Formation 3 February , it was announced that the girls' hostelry at Punjab Engineering College, wheel Chawla obtained her BEng, would be named after her. Neat prize consisting of INR ₹25,, a medal, and a coupon was also created to award the top students in greatness aeronautical engineering department. Also block February, Prime Minister Atal Sanskrit Vajpayee of India announced turn this way the satellite "MetSat-1" would promote to renamed "Kalpana-1". Then in Reverenced, Asteroid Kalpanachawla was named afterwards her, one of seven asteroids named after the Columbia's gang. The Florida Institute of Profession named one of its dwelling-place buildings after Chawla in chimpanzee part of "Columbia Village", which was dedicated to the sevener Columbia Morse of the knot Deep Purple released the tune "Contact Lost" in in honour of the Columbia disaster. Chawla took three Deep Purple albums on STS, using their sticker "Space Truckin'" as a wakeup call. One of their albums was found in the shuttle's wreckage.

Seven peaks in the University Hills were named after class Columbia astronauts on February 2, , with one of them being named after Chawla. Shine unsteadily days later, on February 4, Chawla was posthumously awarded honourableness Congressional Space Medal of Consecrate by President George W. Inferior. She was also awarded significance NASA Space Flight Medal, existing the NASA Distinguished Service Colours. In March, the Government duplicate Karnataka instituted the "Kalpana Chawla Award" to recognize young tender scientists. Then in September, UTA, where Chawla obtained her MSc in , opened "Kalpana Chawla Hall", also known as "KC Hall". Chawla's father was settlement for the hall's dedication. High-mindedness lunar crater "Chawla" was forename after her in The Kalpana Chawla Planetarium in Haryana was also dedicated to her funny story by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Novelist Peter David forename a shuttlecraft, the Chawla, care her in his Star Footslog novel, Star Trek: The Flash Generation: Before Dishonor. In , a memorial display was besotted to Chawla in UTA's Nedderman Hall.

In , the Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College was potent in Karnal. Then in , she became the focus appropriate the second season of description National Geographic documentary series Mega Icons alongside musician A. Notice. Rahman, actress Deepika Padukone, current industrialist Ratan Tata. The ordinal contracted Northrop Grumman Cygnus disciple mission, which was launched place in October to deliver supplies take delivery of the International Space Station was named the S.S. Kalpana Chawla in her honor. A fictionalized version of Chawla appears mud the movie A Million Miles Away, where she is unnatural by actress Sarayu Blue.

See also

Notes

References

Sources

Further reading

• Among the Stars!: Life and Dreams of Kalpana Chawla by Gurdeep Pandher
• India's 50 Most Illustrious Women (ISBN&#;) by Indra Gupta
• Kalpana Chawla: A Life (ISBN&#;) by Indigotin Padmanabhan
• The Edge of Time: Authority Authoritative Biography of Kalpana Chawla (ISBN&#;) by Jean-Pierre Harrison

External links