Kalpana Chawla – A Face of Courage

Whenever we see aero planes and rockets moving in the sky, we must be getting a thought that sometimes we also wanted to fly up in the sky. Yes there is girl who has a big dream like this. She is Kalpana Chawla.

Kalpana Chawla was the first women Indian American astronaut who visited her dream outer-space. She flew on the space shuttle Columbia in1997 to cross horizons and fly into space. Her life and victory is an inspiration to women all over the world. She was an ordinary girl but have enough courage and extraordinary abilities to work to achieve their goal. And also follow her dreams and to be succeed.

A Dream Comes True

During summers, an 8 years old girl, while resting on a bamboo bed use to always behold the sky. By observing the shooting stars in the beautiful dark sky, she uses to always get various questions. Slowly her questions got converted to her dream. And this leads to the amazing passion to be an astronaut. With the help of her self-confidence, strong minded nature and hard work she finally achieved her goal of life and made India proud by becoming the first Indian women who travelling in the space.

Biography and Story

Kalpana was born on 17th March, 1962, Karnal in Haryana, India. she belongs to a normal middle class family .her father naming Banvarial chawla was a small level trader and mother sanyogita was a home maker. Kalpana was the youngest among her four sisters.

She got educated from a private school naming baal niketan senior secondary school which was near to her house. From childhood she likes to be an equal terms with boys. In the early age of 14 she learnt to drive car. She was very much crazy for the udaan club. She used to always dream about flying aero planes. she first flew in aeroplane when she was only in 8^th grade. She completed her higher education and tool admission in the engineering college of Chandigarh and in1982 she received degree in aeronautical Engineering.

Kalpana wanted to go America for her higher studies but her parents were not happy by this decision. With her courage he went to America and by 1984 she received the degree of M.S from Texas University. By the same moment she learnt flying aero planes too. She got married to her aero plane instructor Pierre Harrison and became the citizen of America. After her marriage she earned the doctorate P.H.D Degree in aeronautics. After that she applied for a request at America Space Agency for flying Columbia’s Space Shuttle in NASA. Among of 3000 applications 79 were finally selected by the American Space Agency, from which Kalpana Chawla was only the one who had got selected. Even when she has patiently passed all the selection process because of her dedication. She was put on a very strong training for a year at Space Centre of Houston. She was also receives training for light weighted environment, on how to walk, sleep and eat in the outer space.

19^th November 1997, was the memorable day in her life, when for the first time Kalpana Chawla take off in a Columbian spacecraft. She was flying as a scientific specialist in a group consisting of 6 members including herself. She was in the outer space for 15-16 hours & 33 minutes. Her complete schedule was already fixed from the moment they use to wake up and come out of sleeping bag till the time they had their dinner. Kalpana Chawla was a vegetarian and so she packed her vegetarian food. On December 5^th 1997, she successfully returned to the Earth with her group members by completing their campaign. She was extremely welcomed and appreciated when she got back on the earth. Her space journey didn’t end here. She also selected for 2^nd space tour.

In year 2000 she was included in the motor team of STS 107 space craft. This campaign was totally focused on a Scientific Research. She again got a chance with the help of Columbian Space Craft on 16^th January 2003.15 days they all were focusing in their research. Everyone was happy to being selected for the new campaign in the outer space. 1^st February 2003 was the date when the Columbian Space craft was going to land on the earth. But they were not even aware of the fact that they might not be return to the Earth back once they take off as soon as the space shuttle was returning to earth’s atmosphere, a phenomenon happened which was very shocking for the NASA as well  as for the whole world. Finally the world lost one of the brightest stars from the place Kamal, India. But the journey of Kalpana Chawla will be always inspiring us as a bright shining star.

Her Multi-Talents

From schooling, she received proper attention from her teachers. Kalpana enjoyed subjects like English, Hindi, and Geography. However, science is her favorite subject. She much more interest in extracurricular activities like dancing, cycling, running, and playing badminton.

In her childhood, Kalpana carried herself as a perfect tomboy and kept her hair short as for a boy look. She has no interest in spending money over makeup or fashionable clothes. Most girls of her age would like to wear new dresses and like to more beautiful during elder sister’s wedding, but she refused to wear new dresses and instead on wearing the same dress for three days.

Achievements and Awards

• In 1983 she promoted to the position of Vice President of over set Methods, Inc at NASA Research Center.
• She was made a computational fluid dynamics research on vertical/short take off, landing concepts and got certification for pilot license for seaplanes, multi-engine air place, and glider. She also became a certificated flight instructor for gliders and airplanes.
• Recognition from NASA Kalpana starts her first Space mission on 19th November, 1997. She traveled to space on Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87 along with six other astronauts.
• She gives immense respect to India by becoming the first Indian born woman to fly in space, and the second Indian to be in Space
• Kalpana traveled on Earth over 10.4 million miles in 252 orbits and logging more than 372 hours in outer space.

• She acquired plethora of awards like NASA Flight Medal Congressional Space Medal of Honor and NASA Distinguished Service Medal.

‘The path from dream to success does exist, May you have the vision to find it, the courage to get on to it and the perseverance to follow it’

                                                         -Kalpana Chawla

Kalpana Chawla has left her mark among every Indian her name constitutes a pride on the heart of Indians. Youngsters take an inspiration from her life and aspire to become an astronaut. She is an inspiration and the role model of victory in the mind of every girl. She may have taken US citizenship, but she is the golden fruit of India. People in India emotionally calling her the daughter of the soil who made her country proud. Kalpana Chawla, her name itself makes an  inspiring in us and that  will remain every Indians hearts forever.