Kalpana Chawla

Indian-born scientist and astronaut

• Born: March 17, 1962
• Birthplace: Karnal, Haryana, India
• Died: February 1, 2003
• Place of death: space shuttle Columbia, over Texas

Astronaut and engineer Kalpana Chawla was an aerospace engineering researcher, flight instructor, and astronaut. After conducting computational fluid dynamics research for Overset Methods, Inc., she became the first Indian-born woman in space in 1997. She died in the space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003.

Areas of achievement: Science and technology

Early Life

Kalpana Chawla was born on July 1, 1962, in Karnal, India. Her parents, Barnasi Lal Chawla and Sanjogta Kharbanda, had both been forced to flee their homes during the Partition of India. They had two daughters, Sunita and Deepa, and a son, Sanjay, before Kalpana was born.

When Barnasi married Sanjogta, he had a business making small metal boxes for refugees from Pakistan to store rations. He also helped set up a textile showroom, Binny Textiles, which for a time dominated the Indian textile market. He also started a tire manufacturing company.

As a child, Chawla loved her science classes and was fascinated by flight and space. At a young age, she decided she wanted to be a flight engineer. Her parents encouraged their children to attend school. Chawla’s eldest sister, Sunita, attended college, which was unusual for girls in that time. Unbeknownst to her father, Chawla began studying aeronautical engineering at Punjab Engineering College. Her father assumed that she and her brother would join him in the family business or that his daughter would study medicine or teaching. When Chawla tried to get his signature so she could join her brother at flight school, he refused.

After receiving her bachelor’s degree in engineering in 1982, finishing third in her class, Chawla was offered a job at the Punjab Engineering College, as well as admission to the University of Texas at Arlington for a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering. However, because her father was in the United States and could not give permission for her to attend graduate school in the United States, she took the teaching job. When he returned, he was surprised to find his younger daughter absent; her mother and the older children told him to go see what she was doing.

The principal of the college told Barnasi Chawla that his daughter was brilliant and that her future career lay in the United States. Chawla’s father then arranged to get a passport and visa for her so she could attend the University of Texas. Chawla earned a master of science degree in aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington in 1984, followed by a second master’s degree in 1986.

During her time at Arlington, Chawla met Jean-Pierre Harrison, a French-born flight instructor and aviation writer. The couple was married on December 3, 1983, despite some protest from her family.

In 1988, Chawla earned a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder. In Boulder, she began taking flying lessons and learning some aerobatics. After receiving her PhD, Chawla worked on some projects for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), studying airflows around aircraft. She also worked at Overset Methods, Inc., in Palo Alto, California, serving as a vice president and research scientist. She became a US citizen in 1990.

Life’s Work

In the early 1990s Chawla decided to try NASA’s astronaut training, a decision her husband supported. They left their jobs in California and moved to Houston, Texas, where NASA’s astronaut training facility was located. Chawla’s first application to the program was rejected, but she was admitted on her second try, as one of five women in a class of twenty-three astronauts selected from nearly three thousand applicants. In March 1995, Chawla began the fourteen-month-long astronaut training camp, where she studied navigation and astronomy and became familiar with the controls and operation of the space shuttle. She also trained for the physical rigors of spaceflight.

Although not all trained astronauts are selected for space missions, Chawla was selected for the mission known as STS-87 on the space shuttle Columbia, launching in November 19, 1997. Chawla was a mission specialist and prime robotic-arm operator. She became the first Indian-born woman in space and the second Indian-born person in space, after Indian Air Force cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma. This mission included six crew members, with American, Japanese, and Ukrainian members. STS-87 traveled around the Earth 252 times, during which Chawla deployed the Spartan Satellite, designed to study solar wind and the solar corona. The satellite malfunctioned, pointing in the wrong direction, and had to be recaptured by spacewalk. An investigation found errors in software interfaces and defined procedures. While in flight, the crew of STS-87 conducted numerous experiments. Chawla’s experiments concerned better ways to create metal alloys and silicon chips, as well the efficiency of aeronautical engines.

Following her first space flight, Chawla continued to work with NASA, often providing technical support on the ground. Her second space flight, STS-107, also aboard the Columbia, was repeatedly delayed due to technical problems. The shuttle finally launched on January 16, 2003, with Chawla as flight engineer. Unlike her previous flight, STS-107 was a purely scientific mission, with less focus on practicing space maneuvers. Aside from Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon, all the astronauts were Americans.

During Earth orbit, the Columbiacrew conducted eighty scientific experiments, twelve of which Chawla ran herself. Her main experiments concerned the behaviors of flame and how firefighting could be conducted more effectively and safely in enclosed spaces, including spacecraft and aircraft. She also continued studying alloys and grew cell cultures, in addition to helping her crewmates with their experiments. Students in Australia, China, the United States, Israel, and Japan had designed many of the experiments. The astronauts themselves were also subjects of medical studies to determine the effects of zero gravity on the human body.

Chawla was responsible for daily checks of the shuttle system, as well as assisting the commander with navigation. Overall, the mission was extremely successful. However, a tragedy occurred as the shuttle reentered Earth’s atmosphere. Due to damage from a piece of foam that broke off during takeoff, the Columbia caught fire and broke up over Texas, killing all seven astronauts onboard.

Significance

As the first Indian-born woman in space and only the second Indian-born person in space, Chawla remains an inspiration for millions of people. She excelled as an astronaut, contributing to countless scientific projects for NASA that provided new technological innovations and advancements into space flight.

Bibliography

Cabbage, Michael, and William Harwood. Comm Check: The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia. New York: Free, 2008. Print. A popular account of the Columbia disaster, including biographies of people involved.

Evans, Ben. Space Shuttle Columbia: Her Missions and Crew. Chichester: Praxis, 2005. Print. A detailed account of all Columbia missions and crews.

Katha, Amar Chitra. Kalpana Chawla. Mumbai: India Book House, 2006. Print.A biography of Chawla, covering her childhood and professional life.

Padmanabhan, Anil. Kalpana Chawla, A Life. New Delhi: Puffin, 2003. Print. A short biography of Chawla.