Text Credit: Shibul Pavithran 

Kalpana Chawla, an Indian-American astronaut as well as the first Indian woman to travel to space, she would have turned 56 today if not for that fateful accident on February 1, 2003 when Space Shuttle Columbia perished upon entry to the earth’s atmosphere leading to her death and six other astronauts. She is a role model for an entire generation of women in India as well as around the world.

Born on 17 March 1962, Kalpana Chawla will always be remembered for her inspiring and incredible journey from being born in Karnal – a city in India’s Haryana state to becoming an astronaut with America’s space exploration agency NASA, where she finally fulfilled her dream of reaching out to the stars. Kalpana earned not one but two Master’s degrees and, in 1986, pursued a doctorate program from the University of Colorado.  In the year 1994, she became an astronaut candidate and represented the Astronaut Office EVA/Robotics and Computer Branches, testing software for the space shuttles. Kalpana first went to space in 1997 aboard the spaceship Columbia as a mission specialist and primary robotic arm operator, which made 252 orbits around the earth. It also deployed a satellite, which Kalpana was responsible for. She was then selected again for another space voyage in 2000, but due to the project being delayed, her mission began only in 2003. Kalpana joined a crew of seven, which included Ilan Ramon, Israel’s first astronaut. On February 1, the space shuttle was intended to land at the Kennedy Space Center when disaster struck.

One Interesting fact about Kalpana’s name is that her parents never gave her a formal name but nicknamed her ‘Montu’. She picked her formal name at age three when she was brought to a nursery school by her aunt. The principal asked her name to which her aunt replied: “We have three names in our mind – Kalpana, Jyotsna and Sunaina.” When the principal asked her to pick a name she chose Kalpana.

Source: 

Kalpana is a Sanskrit word that means “creativity” and “imagination” in Hindi, Telugu, Marathi and Nepali. It may also refer to: Kalpana (imagination), a Vedantic view.  As the name suggests, with her level of creativity and imagination,  she surely was a force to reckon with and will remain as an inspiration.

 Legacy 

• The 74th Street in Jackson Heights, Queens in New York City was renamed to ‘Kalpana Chawla Street’.
• There’s a hill on Mars with her name.
• A Nasa Supercomputer is named after her.
• An asteroid that circles between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter called the 51826 Kalpanachawla.
• India’s first weather satellite, the Kalpana 1.
• Planetarium in Kurukshetra was named as Kaplana Chawla Memorial planetarium, near Karnal.
• Her alma mater, Punjab University named the girl’s hostel after her.
• Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the then Prime Minister renamed the MET Satellites to Kalpana in her honour.
• The Indian Institute of Kharagpur has a Kalpana Chawla Space Technology Cell, named as tribute to her.

The post Happy Birthday To Kalpana Chawla, Remembering India’s Space Queen appeared first on FWD Life | The Premium Lifestyle Magazine |.