Do you know these things about her?
She always gave priority to her dreams of flying and by entering NASA fulfilled her dream of space travel. She became an icon in the world by becoming the first woman astronaut of Indian origin.
Kalpana Chawla was born on 17 March 1962 in Karnal district of Haryana, India. She was the fourth child of her father Bansari Lal and mother Sanyogita. Affectionately she was called monto
She enrolled at Punjab Engineering College to pursue Aeronautical Engineering; a rare career path women undertook in the 1980s
She got admission into the University of Texas, where she obtained Masters of Science (MS) in Aerospace Engineering two years later, in 1984. Received a PhD in the same.
In 1988, joined NASA to research in the area of powered-lift computational fluid dynamics. 4 years later, she applied to become a part of the Astronaut Corps .
The years 1996 and 97 were forever etched in history as Kalpana Chawla became the first Indian-born woman to travel to space. Onboard the Columbia STS-87
After returning to Earth in September 1997, Chawla was just 40 years old when she became a part of the crew for her second space mission in 2003.
February 1, 2003, everyone's eyes peeled to their television screens, everyone was excited to welcome the astronauts back to Earth
But unfortunately, On entering the Earth's atmosphere, hot air entered into the shuttle's wing , resulting in its eventual disintegration just 16 minutes before landing.