Kalpana Chawla was born on March 17, 1962, in Karnal, India, to parents Banarasi Lal Chawla and Sanjyothi Chawla. Chawla's given name wasn't revealed to the public until she started kindergarten. Montu was her parents' name for her, but Chawla chose her own name for herself when she started school. Kalpana is a Hindi name for girls that means "idea" or "imagination." K.C. was short for her entire name, which is pronounced CULL-pah-na CHAU-la.
Her final school was Tagore Baal Niketan Senior Secondary School in Karnal, where she graduated with honors. Chawla and her father spent a lot of time at local flying clubs as she was growing up.
Kalpana is the youngest of four siblings, yet she puts her dedication to her studies and science in particular. After graduating from high school, she plans to attend Punjab Engineering College to major in aeronautics. After realizing that she has reached the end of her educational path in India, she moves to the United States, where she is determined to pursue a career as an astronaut by any means necessary.
Twenty-year-old Kalpana had just arrived in the United States in 1981. By the time she is 26, she has already completed a Master's program in Texas and a Doctoral program in Colorado, and she has been recruited by NASA to work as a research scientist. Kalpana becomes a US citizen through the naturalization process, applying to the NASA Astronaut Corps three years later.
Chawla began working on powered-lift computational fluid dynamics at NASA's Ames Research Center the same year. Her work was particularly focused on understanding how air moves around an airplane during flight and using computers into the effort. Chawla was chosen as an astronaut candidate in 1994. She became a crew representative for the Astronaut Office EVA/Robotics and Computer Branches after a year of training, where she worked with Robotic Situational Awareness Displays and evaluated software for the space shuttles.
The Congressional Space Medal of Honor, the NASA Space Flight Medal, and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal were all bestowed to him posthumously. Chawla became a mission specialist on STS-107 in 2000, her second spaceflight. The mission launched on Jan. 16, 2003, after multiple delays.
NASA reported that the crew conducted over 80 experiments throughout the 16-day journey, working a rigorous shift schedule to guarantee research continued. The STS-107 crew tested NASA's water recycling system for the young International Space Station. Elementary school children around the world researched how insects and fish react to spaceflight and the sun.
Chawla, commander Rick D. Husband, pilot William C. McCool, mission specialists David M. Brown, Michael P. Anderson, and Laurel B. Clark, and payload specialist Ilan Ramon died when Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart during re-entry on February 1, 2003.