Kalpana Chawla’s Birth Anniversary: 11 Facts About The First Indian Woman To Go Into Space

Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian origin woman to go into space was born on 17 March 1962. She was born in Karnal, Haryana, an Indian state. Who knew that an ordinary girl would one day break the glass ceiling to follow her passion and make her motherland proud. Well, it's been 17 long years since Kalpana Chawla died on 1 February 2003, during her second space mission.

Even today young girls in India consider Kalpana Chawla as their inspiration. On her birth anniversary, here are some facts about the woman who made our country proud. Scroll down to read more:

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1. Kalpana Chawla was born to mother Sanjyoti Chawla and father Banarasi Lal Chawla. She was the youngest of her four siblings.

2. She completed her primary schooling from Tagore Bal Niketan School in Karnal and then pursued Aeronautical Engineering From Punjab Engineering College. In the year she went to the USA to pursue, Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington.

3. Since her childhood, Kalpana enjoyed watching airplanes flying the sky. Her father took her to the local flying clubs where she would enjoy riding planes.

4. In the year 1986, she earned her second Masters of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas.

5. It was in the year 1988 when Kalpana joined NASA Ames Research Center and began her research in the vertical and/or short take-off landing concepts.

6. In the year 1991, Kalpana Chawla became the naturalised citizen of the USA. She married Jean-Pierre Harrison.

7. It was on 19 November 1997, when Kalpana Chawla went on her first space mission with 6 other crew members in Space Shuttle Columbia STS-87. She became the first Indian woman to fly in the space.

8. During her first mission, Kalpana Chawla was given the responsibility of deploying the Spartan satellite. She travelled more than 10.4 million miles (16737177.6 km) that comprised 252 orbits of the earth. She logged more than 372 hours (15 days and 12 hours) in space during the mission.

9. It was in the year 2001 when Kalpana Chawla was selected for the second time for a space mission in STS-107. This time she was given the duty of the mission specialist.

10. Due to some faults and other reasons, the mission was postponed and it was finally resumed in the year 2003. Kalpana Chawla went into space on 16 January 2003 with 6 more crew members.

11. During the mission, the crew performed over 80 experiments related to Earth and space science. While the shuttle was returning on 1 February 2003, it exploded due to some malfunctioning the craft. Kalpana Chawla along with her crew members died 16 minutes prior to landing over Texas.