New Delhi, January 31 (IANS). February 1 is a black day for Indian and American space scientists. This is because on this day, on 1 February 2003, India’s pride and American space mission astronaut Kalpana Chawla passed away. Even today there is a pang in the heart remembering that day, when Kalpana Chawla, who was returning to earth with the entire team after completing a space mission, became the victim of a terrible accident.
Kalpana Chawla was born on 17 March 1962 in Karnal, Haryana, India. Since childhood, he was very interested in space and science. He completed his studies in Aeronautical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College. After this she went to America for further studies. In 1994, he was selected by the US space agency NASA for its next mission.
Kalpana Chawla went on her space mission for the first time in 1997. Kalpana Chawla became the first Indian-origin woman to fly on a space mission when she flew on the Columbia Space Shuttle (STS-87) mission. Her first space mission was successful and she returned safely to Earth.
After this, his second mission started on 16 January 2003, which was the last. Kalpana left for the second space mission STS107 on 16 January. During this period, the Columbia spacecraft conducted more than 80 scientific experiments. Finally, on February 1, 2003, Kalpana and her team were returning to Earth in the Columbia spacecraft.
Just 16 minutes away from landing on Earth, something happened that shook everyone. When the Columbia spacecraft was 16 minutes away from the Earth, the spacecraft faced some technical problem.
Due to the hole in the left fan of the spacecraft, outside gas started filling rapidly inside the spacecraft. Due to filling of gas in the vehicle, the sensors stopped working and the spacecraft became victim of a major accident and thus Kalpana never returned from that mission. All seven astronauts including Kalpana Chawla died in this accident.
Kalpana Chawla is the pride of India. Posthumously he was awarded many honours. Many institutions, scholarships and spacecraft were named after him. Chawla was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor by then President George W. Bush.
–IANS
KK/VC