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Write a short essay on Kalpana Chawla.
Write a short essay on Kalpana Chawla.
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This discussion was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by
Kidpid.
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This discussion was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by
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Many of us wish to reach out and touch the stars. However, only a small percentage of us persist in pursuing our ambitions. We leave them out of fear of the future and nervousness over the unknown. Kalpana Chawla, an Indian woman astronaut, achieved her goal of becoming the first Indian woman in space. – Space queen.
She was born in Karnal on March 17, 1862. In 1982, she got her B.E degree. in the specific filed of Aeronautical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh. In 1984, she completed her master’s degree at the University of Texas. She went on to complete another master’s degree and then a Ph.D. at the University of Colorado.
She began as Vice-President of Overset Methods at NASA Ames Research Centre in 1988. She did experiments on landing and take-off fluid dynamics.
She was also a certified flight instructor and pilot. In 1991, she became a US citizen. As a result, she applied to join NASA’s Astronaut Corps. She enlisted in 1995 and flew for the first time in 1996. She said in the weightlessness of space:
“You are just your intelligence.”
She had traveled 10.67 million kilometers, the equivalent of 252 times across the Earth. Her first space flight was onboard the space shuttle Columbia on November 19, 1997, as part of a six-person crew. She spent 372 hours in space during this flight. She was tasked with launching the Spartan Satellite.
She took over operational duties in the space station after completing this mission. Her colleagues praised her work. She was chosen for her second flight in 2000, as part of the STS 107 crew. She and other passengers boarded the plane on January 16, 2003. She conducted research on Earth and space exploration, as well as technological advancement and astronaut safety and health.
On 1st February 2003, the shuttle disintegrated over Texas before re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts.
She received many awards after her death like the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, NASA Space Flight Medal, and Distinguished Service Medal. The University of Colorado’s Kalpana Chawla Outstanding Recent Alumni Award was renamed in her honor. A comet, a mountain on Mars, a constellation of Indian satellites, and a NASA supercomputer are all named after her.
The Haryana government founded the Kalpana Chawla Planetarium in Kurukshetra. In 2013, a medical college was named after her and opened in her hometown. She died young, but she left an indelible mark on the hearts of young people who want to live a meaningful life. Her spirit inspires one to take chances and not be fearful of obstacles.
She was a rare gem, and the void left by her passing could never be filled. Her brother put it this way:
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Kalpana chawla was the first woman to go to the space . She was an Indian American space traveler and space shuttle mission specialist. She was born on March 17th ,1962 in Karnal, Haryana and died on February 1,2003. She was on of the seven crew members who died in Columbia spacecraft disaster. She was the yongest sibling of the family and her father’s name was- Shri Banarasi Lal Chawla and mother’s name was Sanjyoti Devi. Kalpana completed her btech from aeronautical engineering from punjab engineering college and did her masters in aeronautical engineering from University of Texas. She got a title of Vidya Vaschaspati in aeronautical engineering. In the early 1990s she started working as a vice president at AIIM’s research centre. Kalpana joined NASA’s astronaut corps on 1997 and was selected for her first flight in 1997 only. Her first space mission started in 1995 She was the part of the 7 member astronaut group of STS-7. There were two people of Indian origin who flew on the flight. One of them were kalpana chawaala and other one was Rakesh Sharma. She spent 360 hours in the space and travelled more than 1 crore miles and 252 revolution over 2 weeks.
In 2002 kalpana chaawala was selected for her 2nd flight as the mission head in STS-107. On the morning of Feb. 1, 2003, the space shuttle returned to Earth, which has to land at Kennedy Space Center. At launch, an average piece of insulation had broken off and damaged the thermal protection system of the shuttle’s wing, the shield that protects it from heat during re-entry. As the shuttle passed through the atmosphere, hot gas streaming into the wing caused it to break up. The unstable craft rolled , thrashed the astronauts about. Less than a minute passed before the ship depressurized, killing the crew. The shuttle broke up over Texas and Louisiana before plunging into the ground. The accident was the second major disaster for the space shuttle program, following the 1986 explosion of the shuttle Challenger.
The entire crew of seven was killed. In addition to Chawla, the crew included:
• Commander Rick D. Husband
• Pilot William C. McCool
• Payload Commander Michael P. Anderson
• Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut
• Mission Specialists David M. Brown and Laurel B. Clark
