Born on March 17, 1962, in Karnal, Kalpana Chawla was the first Indian-origin woman to go into space. Chawla joined NASA in 1988 and first flew aboard Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997. The astronaut died on her second mission aboard Columbia in 2003. Sunita Williams, born in the US, became the second Indian-origin woman to travel into space in 2006.
Born in Karnal, Chawla received a degree in aeronautical engineering from Punjab Engineering College before moving to the United States for her masters and PhD. In 1994, she was selected as an astronaut candidate at NASA.
Chawla first travelled to space aboard the ill-fated space shuttle Columbia flight STS-87. The shuttle made 252 orbits around the Earth in a little over two weeks, before the tragic accident that took place in February while it was returning to Earth.
Chawla moved to the United States to pursue her graduate education; in 1984 she received a Master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas, and a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado in 1988. She held commercial pilot’s licenses for single- and multi-engine aeroplanes, seaplanes and gliders, and was also a certified flight instructor.
After becoming a naturalised US citizen in April 1991, Chawla applied for the NASA astronauts corps. She was selected in December 1994 and reported to the Johnson Space Center in Houston in 1995 as an astronaut candidate in Group 15. In November 1996, Chawla was assigned as a mission specialist on STS-87 aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia, becoming the first woman of Indian descent to fly in space.
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