Kalpana Chawla's Journey: From Engineering College to NASA and Becoming First Indian-Born Woman to Go to Space

Kalpana was born on 17th March 1962 in Karnal, Haryana. She came from a place where education was a luxury for girls at that time. She once said in an interview “ Forget about space, I didn’t even know if my folks were going to let me go to the engineering college.”

The young mind of Kalpana was always fascinated by aeroplanes and flying. Her mother was the one who always pushed her hard for her dreams which eventually landed her at NASA and became the first Indian-born woman to go to space.

After completing her school education, Kalpana graduated in aeronautical engineering from Punjab engineering college. And when she was 20 she moved to the US.

On 5 Feb 2003, Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian to go into space said in a conference that “Here was this small-town girl in Karnal who dreamt of going into space. She chased her dream. It wasn’t available in the country. She went halfway around the world and went after her dream and grabbed it”.

Kalpana Chawla was the reason behind many individuals in India who get inspired by her to dream big irrespective of the place they come. Before going to space Kalpana was a certified pilot for seaplanes, multi-engine aircraft and was also licensed as a flight instructor for gliders.

When Kalpana was 26, she joined NASA and worked at the Ames Research Center. Three years later, Kalpana got the citizenship of the United States which opened her doors for applying in the NASA Astronaut Corps to participate in US space missions. There she passed the competitive process and began her training and education as an astronaut.

Kalpana was a visionary in her field and her love for his school was immense. She helped in organizing a program that allowed two students from her school in Haryana to visit NASA every year.

The ultimate dream of Kalpana was to go to space and her first opportunity came when she was 35. The flight STS-87 launched into space with Kalpana and her crew.

The observational trip was successful. The Space Shuttle Columbia orbited the Earth 252 times, covering 6.5 Million miles in 15 days 16 hours, and 34 minutes.

Kalpana shared her thoughts from the space as she expressed “it’s a dome of a dark sky and stars everywhere and, the Earth a lot of time covered with thunderstorm here and there with some small sprays of lightning and every once in a while city lights peep through the clouds. It’s very much like a storybook”.

When Kalpana was 40, the space shuttle Columbia flew for the 2nd time taking seven astronauts to space. The flight took off on 16 Jan 2003, for a 16-day flight.

Kalpana was responsible for conducting different experiments for which she worked 24 hours a day in alternative shifts.

“You simply do not have time to dwell on yesterdays because you have to finish the whole mission properly. I think once we get back to Earth we will have a lot of time to talk about this and that’s when I plan to do that”, Kalpana shared her feeling while on the mission but unfortunately, things were not in her hands.

As when Space shuttle Columbus re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere, hot atmospheric air entered the shuttle wing which was damaged during the takeoff. As a result, the shuttle broke apart in which the entire crew lost their lives. At that moment the entire world was in shock, so does was India. She may not be with us but her legacy and her journey have inspired millions to aim big and imagine the unimaginable.