Kalpana Chawla
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Montu Chawla (1962 - 2003)

Montu (Kalpana) Chawla
Born in Karnal, Punjab, Indiamap
Daughter of [private father (1940s - unknown)] and [mother unknown]
Sister of [private brother (1960s - unknown)] and [private brother (1960s - unknown)]
Wife of [private husband (1950s - unknown)]
[children unknown]
Died at age 40 in Airspace over Texas, United Statesmap
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Profile last modified | Created 9 Jan 2017
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Contents

Biography

Notables Project
Kalpana Chawla is Notable.
India Sticker Native
Kalpana Chawla was born in India

Childhood and Youth in India

Kalpana Chawla was an American astronaut and the first woman of Indian origin in space.

Kalpana was born Montu Kalpana, 17 Mar 1962, in Karnal, Punjab (now Haryana), India. She was the youngest of four children born to Banarasi lal Chawla and his wife, Sangita. As a three-year-old child, her parents altered her birthdate to 1 Jun 1961, in order that she could be enrolled into school early. That same year, she chose to change her own name to Kalpana.[1] Kalpana completed her schooling from Tagore Baal Niketan Senior Secondary School, Karnal.

Education in the United States

In 1982, having earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College, Kalpana moved to the United States, where she and obtained a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1984. She then went on to earn a second Masters degree in 1986 and a PhD in Aerospace engineering in 1988, both from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Marriage

Kalpana was married to her flight instructor, Jean-Pierre Harrison, 2 Dec 1983, in Tarrant County, Texas. He later became a software developer.[2][3] Kalpana and Jean-Pierre did not have any children.

NASA Career

1988 Began working at NASA Ames Research Center.
1994 Selected by NASA in Astronauts Group 15. [4]
1997 Flew on Columbia STS-87 as MS1 with Kevin Kregel, Steven Lindsey, Winston Scott, Takao Doi and Leonid Kadeniuk. Awarded the NASA Space Flight Medal, her first of 2. [5]
STS-87
NASA
Space Flight
2003 Flew on Columbia STS-107 as MS2 with Rick Husband, William C. McCool, David M. Brown, Michael P. Anderson, Laurel B. Clark and Ilan Ramon. Awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal and the NASA Space Flight Medal, her second of 2. [5]
NASA
Distinguished
Service
STS-107
NASA
Space Flight
2004 Awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. [6]
Congressional
Space Medal
of Honor

Death

Kalpana died on 1 Feb 2003, along with the other six crew members of the Space Shuttle Columbia when it disintegrated over Texas during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. Her remains were identified along with those of the rest of the crew members and were cremated and scattered at Zion National Park in Utah in accordance with her wishes.

Obituary

When Kalpana Chawla emigrated to the United States from India in the 1980s, she wanted to design aircraft. The space program was the furthest thing from her mind.

"That would be too far-fetched," the 41-year-old engineer said in an interview earlier this year. But "one thing led to another" and she was chosen as an astronaut in 1994 after working at NASA's Ames Research Center and Overset Methods Inc. in Northern California.

Chawla was the first India native to fly on a space shuttle but the second in space, after Rakesh Sharma, who flew on an Indo-Soviet mission in 1984.

She was a hero in her native country, which has launched satellites for years and is preparing for a moon orbit this decade. One Indian news agency even tracked Columbia's flight so it could tell readers the exact minute they could wave to the skies to hail their countrywoman.

In a 1998 interview with India Today, Chawla said she never thought about being "the first or second someone" 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."

Chawla enjoyed flying aerobatics and tail-wheel airplanes. She told reporters before the Columbia flight that J.R.D. Tata, who flew the first mail flights in India, captivated her imagination and prompted her to take up aeronautics as a career.

On her only other spaceflight, in 1997, she made mistakes that sent a science satellite tumbling out of control. Other astronauts had to go on a spacewalk to capture it. NASA later acknowledged that the instructions to the crew may not have been clear.

"I stopped thinking about it after trying to figure out what are the lessons learned, and there are so many," she said. "After I had basically sorted that out, I figured it's time to really look at the future and not at the past."

Sources

  1. Harrison, Jean-Pierre, The Edge of Time: the authoritative biography of Kalpana Chawla. (Los Gatos, CA: Harrison Publishing, 2011).
  2. Linkden
  3. "Texas Marriages, 1966-2010"
    citing Tarrant, Texas, United States, certificate number 192074, Vital Statistics Unit, Texas Department of State Health Services, Austin.
    FamilySearch Record: VYW9-B6N (accessed 2 January 2023)
    Kalpana Chawla (22) marriage to Jean P Harrison (26) on 2 Dec 1983 in Tarrant, Texas, United States.
  4. Wikipedia List of Astronauts, by Year
  5. 5.0 5.1 Agency Awards Historical Recipient List
  6. Congressional Space Medal of Honor Recipients

See also:

Acknowledgements





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Comments: 2

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Just found a copy of her official biography written by her husband in 2011. Unfortunately, he does not talk about her ancestry except to say that her parents were both born in Sheikhupura district, Punjab, British India, which is now in Pakistan. They married in Karnal, Punjab (now Haryana), India where Kalpana was born. It should be noted that she was originally named Montu but changed her name to Kalpana when she was three years old. That's important info for anyone looking for a birth record.

The best I can tell, her parents and three siblings are all still living, as is her husband. She did not have any children. She did have a brother-in-law named Sunil Chaudhry, a naval pilot and who died in an aviation accident. As he is deceased, he could be a lead to other connections. it also appears that some of her relations may have also moved to the United States, but again, they are apparently all still living.

I can't print info about living people here, but if you want to further info about what's in the book, just email me (advance warning: it isn't much!)

posted by David Randall
Her parents, siblings, and husband appear to all be living. Her husband was born in England and may be the easiest way to connect her to the Global Tree.
posted by M. (Tull) Meredith