Kalpana Chawla Mission Specialist Space Shuttle

[Guest guest]

The following biographical info is copied from the NASA website. She

sounds like a remarkable women and her spirit and talents will be missed.

 

<begin quoted material>

 

KALPANA CHAWLA (PH.D.)

NASA ASTRONAUT

 

PERSONAL DATA: Born in Karnal, India. Kalpana Chawla enjoys flying,

hiking, back-packing, and reading. She holds Certificated Flight

Instructor's license with airplane and glider ratings, Commercial

Pilot's licenses for single- and multi-engine land and seaplanes, and

Gliders, and instrument rating for airplanes. She enjoys flying

aerobatics and tail-wheel airplanes.

 

EDUCATION: Graduated from Tagore School, Karnal, India, in 1976.

Bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering from Punjab

Engineering College, India, 1982. Master of science degree in

aerospace engineering from University of Texas, 1984. Doctorate of

philosophy in aerospace engineering from University of Colorado, 1988.

 

EXPERIENCE: In 1988, Kalpana Chawla started work at NASA Ames Research

Center in the area of powered-lift computational fluid dynamics. Her

research concentrated on simulation of complex air flows encountered

around aircraft such as the Harrier in "ground-effect." Following

completion of this project she supported research in mapping of flow

solvers to parallel computers, and testing of these solvers by

carrying out powered lift computations. In 1993 Kalpana Chawla joined

Overset Methods Inc., Los Altos, California, as Vice President and

Research Scientist to form a team with other researchers specializing

in simulation of moving multiple body problems. She was responsible

for development and implementation of efficient techniques to perform

aerodynamic optimization. Results of various projects that Kalpana

Chawla participated in are documented in technical conference papers

and journals.

 

NASA EXPERIENCE: Selected by NASA in December 1994, Kalpana Chawla

reported to the Johnson Space Center in March 1995 as an astronaut

candidate in the 15th Group of Astronauts. After completing a year of

training and evaluation, she was assigned as crew representative to

work technical issues for the Astronaut Office EVA/Robotics and

Computer Branches. Her assignments included work on development of

Robotic Situational Awareness Displays and testing space shuttle

control software in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory.

 

In November, 1996, Kalpana Chawla was assigned as mission specialist

and prime robotic arm operator on STS-87 (November 19 to December 5,

1997). STS-87 was the fourth U.S Microgravity Payload flight and

focused on experiments designed to study how the weightless

environment of space affects various physical processes, and on

observations of the Sun's outer atmospheric layers. Two members of the

crew performed an EVA (spacewalk) which featured the manual capture of

a Spartan satellite, in addition to testing EVA tools and procedures

for future Space Station assembly. In completing her first mission,

Kalpana Chawla traveled 6.5 million miles in 252 orbits of the Earth

and logged 376 hours and 34 minutes in space. In January, 1998,

Kalpana Chawla was assigned as crew representative for shuttle and

station flight crew equipment. Subsequently, she was assigned as the

lead for Astronaut Office's Crew Systems and Habitability section. She

is currently assigned to the crew of STS-107 scheduled for launch in 2003.

 

JANUARY 2003

[Guest guest]

Thank you, Frank, for a most appropriate and timely tribute. I have

added a small memorial to the front page of the Group.

 

DB

[Guest guest]

This is very sad.Please join me in offering our condolences to the

familes of the seven crew members who lost their lives in the

columbia space shuttle explosion. May their souls rest in peace.

 

First Indian-born woman in space was modern heroine in her homeland

43 minutes ago

 

By LAURINDA KEYS, Associated Press Writer

 

NEW DELHI, India - Front pages of Saturday's Indian newspapers

carried pictures of Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian-born woman in

space, to celebrate her expected return to earth on the U.S. space

shuttle Columbia.

 

 

 

The return never happened as the shuttle broke apart over Texas

minutes before it was to land in Florida, killing all seven crew

members.

 

 

"She was an accomplished astronaut and NASA (news - web sites) is a

robust organization. It will sort out the problem and spring back,"

said the head of India's Space Research Organization, Krishnaswamy

Kasturirangan.

 

 

In India, which has launched satellites for years and is preparing

for a moon orbit this decade, Chawla was a new kind of heroine.

 

 

Before she lifted off on the Columbia for her second trip to space,

she told reporters her inspiration to take up flying was J.R.D. Tata,

who flew the first mail flights in India.

 

 

"What J.R.D. Tata had done during those years was very intriguing and

definitely captivated my imagination," Press Trust of India (news -

web sites) quoted her as saying on Jan. 16.

 

 

After her first flight in 1997, she had told News India-Times of

seeing India's Himalayan Mountains and mighty rivers from space.

 

 

"The Ganges Valley looked majestic, mind boggling," she said. "Africa

looked like a desert and the Nile a vein in it."

 

 

She was born 41 years ago in Karnal, about 135 kilometers (80 miles)

north of New Delhi. She later became an American citizen.

 

 

Chawla's parents, two sisters and sister-in-law had gone to the

United States to watch her flight, a family friend, Arun Sharma, said

outside the home of her brother, Sanjay, in New Delhi.

 

 

Sanjay Chawla heard about the disaster while watching TV news, and

was unable to make any comment, Sharma said.

 

 

The residents of Karnal had planned a celebration, but were in shock

and mourning on Saturday night.

 

 

Some 300 children at the Tagore Bal Niketan school that Chawla

attended had gathered for an evening of song and dance to celebrate

the expected landing of Columbia, said Principal Rajan Lamba in a

phone interview with The Associated Press.

 

 

"A happy occasion turned into an atmosphere of disbelief shock and

condolence," Lamba said.

 

 

A former classmate from the 1970s, Meena Bansal, told Press Trust of

India, "It is hard to believe that the girl who dreamt of going to

the moon in her childhood would meet such a fate."

 

 

In an interview with India Today in 1998, Chawla said, "I never truly

thought of being the first or second someone. Or being a small-town

girl."

 

 

She said, "This is just something I wanted to do. It was very

important for me to enjoy it."

 

 

The PTI news agency had calculated exactly when Indians could look to

the skies and wave as the space shuttle carrying mission specialist

Chawla flew past in the heavens. PTI told readers in southern Bombay

and Madras which minute of the day they could hail their

countrywoman. The Times of India put her picture at the top of the

front page in Saturday morning's editions.

 

Chawla, however, said she did not feel Indian in space.

 

"When you look at the stars and the galaxy, you feel that you are not

just from any particular piece of land, but from the solar system,"

she told India Today.

 

Chawla received a degree in aeronautical engineering from Punjab

Engineering College, then moved to the United States, where she

earned advanced degrees in the same field from the University of

Texas and the University of Colorado at Boulder.

 

She became an astronaut in 1994. On her first space flight, she was

accused of making mistakes that sent a science satellite tumbling out

of control. Other astronauts went on a space walk to capture it.

 

She told India Today a NASA investigation had found the accident

resulted from a series of small errors.

 

On that 1997 flight, Chawla said that as the shuttle repeatedly

passed over India, especially New Delhi, she pointed it out to the

other crew members and said, "I lived near there."

 

news service.

 

____________________

[Guest guest]

be proud of her and pray for her tooo

"Devi Bhakta <devi_bhakta" <devi_bhakta wrote:Thank you,

Frank, for a most appropriate and timely tribute. I have

added a small memorial to the front page of the Group.

 

DB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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