KALPANA CHAWLA (1961-2003)

REMEMBERED FOR

• First Indian-American to go to space (Born : Karnal,India)
• Most remembered as one of the crew members aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia

LIFE IN SPACE

• In 1988, she joined NASA at the Ames Research Center and in 1995 she was selected as an astronaut candidate and reported to Johnson Space Center.
• She was in space for over 31 days, 14 hours and 54 minutes.
• In 2003 , onboard Columbia , Chawla and the crew performed nearly 80 experiments studying Earth and space science, advanced technology development, and astronaut health and safety.

THE END

• During the launch of its 28th Earth-orbiting mission, a piece of insulating foam broke off and struck the left wing of the space ship.
• On February 1, 2003, on re-entry Chawla and the rest of Columbia's crew was lost when the shuttle was re-entering Earth's atmosphere. The damaged wing allowed super heated gases to penetrate the orbiter leading to explosion over Texas.

THANK YOU