KALPANA CHAWLAwas a mission specialist and one of seven astronauts who died when Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated in the sky above Texas during re-entry on 1 February, 2003.She was born on 7 March, 1962, into a Hindu family in Karnal, northern India. Her name translates as "imagination of the mind". She was inspired to pursue a career in flying by the pioneering Indian aviator J R D Tata.After studying aeronautical engineering at Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh, she moved to America in 1982 to take a Masters degree in aerospace engineering at the University of Texas in Arlington. There she met her future husband, Jean-Pierre Harrison, a flying instructor and aviation writer.She began a second Masters degree in mechanical engineering at University of Colorado, Boulder, and culminated her education with a PhD in aerospace engineering in 1988. She then began working for NASA at the Ames Research Centre in California. She also held licences to fly a number of small aircraft.She joined the NASA astronaut corps in 1995 and flew her first mission three years later on board Columbia, making her the first Indian-born woman to go into space. During the mission, Ms Chawla was responsible for deploying the Spartan Satellite. A malfunction necessitated a spacewalk by two other astronauts but an investigation found Ms Chawla was not to blame.The ill-fated STS-107 mission was tasked with carrying out more than 80 experiments into microgravity. On board the flight she took with her CDs from artists ranging from Ravi Shankar to Deep Purple. Her motto was taken from the philosopher Seneca: "I was not born for one corner: the whole world is my native land."After her death, she was honoured with the Congressional Space Medal of Honour and NASA's Distinguished Service Medal. A meteorite was named after each of the Columbia crew and India named a weather satellite KALPANA in her memory. An award for young female scientists in the Indian state of Karnataka also bears her name.Ms Chawla's brother, Sanjay, said: "To me, my sister is not dead. She is immortal. Isn't that what a star is? She is a permanent star in the sky. She will always be up there where she belongs."The mission which killed her had already been beset by various problems, with the launch being delayed for more than two years. The disaster occurred after a small foam insulation panel broke loose during take-off on 16 January. The debris struck the left wing, damaging the shuttle's thermal protection system.Although engineers suspected that Columbia had been damaged, NASA managers decided that, even if this was the case, there was nothing that could be done about it and did not order an investigation. They attempted to bring the shuttle back to earth as planned, but hot gases in the atmosphere penetrated the craft's structure and caused it to break up, scattering fragments across the Texas countryside from an altitude of 38 miles.After the disaster an investigation was heavily critical of NASA flight managers for not observing safety protocol and the Space Shuttle programme was set back over two years. President George W Bush said the death of the crew had "brought terrible news and great sadness to our country".
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