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Born July 1, 1961
Karnal, India
Died February 1, 2003
In Columbia explosion upon return to Earth
Astronaut and aeronautical engineer
![Kalpana Chawla. AP/Wide World Photos.](https://d22o6al7s0pvzr.cloudfront.net/images/bookrags/uimr/uimr_03_img0354.jpg)
"You're floating [in space]…. Earth is very beautiful. I wish everyone could see it."
Kalpana Chawla was the first female astronaut from India. To pursue her dream of flying airplanes and becoming an aerospace engineer, she studied physics, chemistry, and math in high school and excelled at an engineering college in India. She then took on advanced studies in the United States. She joined the American space program in 1995 and traveled millions of miles in space, orbiting Earth hundreds of times on two space-shuttle missions. She was a flight engineer and mission specialist on the space shuttle Columbia, which broke up sixteen minutes before it was scheduled to land on February 1, 2003. Chawla and her six fellow astronauts were killed.
Stargazer and Trailblazer
This section contains 2,515 words (approx. 9 pages at 300 words per page) |
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