What comes to your mind when you hear ‘Kalpana’? before 2003 it was only a word which meant ‘Fiction’ but later on ‘Kalpana’ became an inspiration and pride for all. Kalpana Chawla, born in Punjab’s Karnal in March 1962 loved to draw aeroplanes in her childhood. Who could have imagined then that she was just warming up for a glorious journey? She completed her Bachelors of Aeronautical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh.
In 1982 Kalpana moved to the United States to pursue her dream of becoming an astronaut and did double Masters and PhD in aerospace engineering. Her first step towards her dream was when she joined NASA and then there was no turning back. She lived her dream in 1997 when she went on her first space flight. “You are just your intelligence”, were her thoughts while slicing through the nothingness of space.
Kalpana travelled over 10.4 million miles aboard the space shuttle Columbia on flight STS-87. The shuttle made 252 orbits of the earth in 15-days and carried on a number of experiments including a Spartan Satellite deployed from the shuttle by Chawla herself. 6 years after that on 16th January 2003, she set out for another mission as a mission specialist on STS-107. It was a 16-day flight and they conducted 80-experiments. Everything went well. But! Kalpana didn’t come back. She perished in her dream only.
On 1st February 2003, the shuttle was supposed to land at Kennedy Space Centre. But that never happened. On its way back, the shuttle broke up over Texas and Louisiana before crashing on the ground.
Kalpana Chawla including her 7-member crew died in that accident.
To honor her India renamed its first satellite of Met-Sat series, ‘MetSat-1' to ‘Kalpana-1’. Many scholarships, streets, universities and institutions in India and the United States have been renamed in her honor.
Kalpana is the first Indian-born woman to travel to space. The inspirational fire she ignited within us will always be there. Kalpana Chawla proved that the “The path from dreams to success does exist.”
