Kalpana Chawla was still a little girl in India when she discovered her love of flying. An intelligent and determined student, she worked hard to become an astronaut. Many people tried to talk Kalpana out of a career in aerospace, but she refused to listen to them. After finishing her education in the United States, Kalpana became a NASA astronaut. She flew on two space missions before a horrible accident took her life. Part of the Notable Asian Americans series, this book is an inspiring story for people everywhere. Kalpana did not worry about being the first. She simply focused on making her dreams of space flight a reality.

Biography of Kalpana Chawla, 1961-2003, Indian born astronaut for NASA.

Biography of India-born NASA astronaut Kalpana Chawla. Covers her life from birth in India to graduate studies in the US, followed by an aerospace career culminating in her 1994 selction into the NASA astronaut corps. Details her astronaut training and two spoace shuttle flights, STS-87 in 1997, and the ill-fated STS-107 in 2003.Wrireen by her husband, Jean-Pierre Harrison.

Human space flight is still in its infancy; spacecraft navigate narrow tracks of carefully computed ascent and entry trajectories with little allowable deviation. Until recently, it remained the province of a few governments. As private industry and more countries join in this great enterprise, we must share findings that may help protect those who venture into space. In the history of NASA, this approach has resulted in many improvements in crew survival. After the Apollo 1 fire, sweeping changes were made to spacecraft design and to the way crew rescue equipment was positioned and available at the launch pad. After the Challenger accident, a jettisonable hatch, personal oxygen systems, parachutes, rafts, and pressure suits were added to ascent and entry operations of the space shuttle. As we move toward a time when human space flight will be commonplace, there is an obligation to make this inherently risky endeavor as safe as feasible. Design features, equipment, training, and procedures all play a role in improving crew safety and survival in contingencies. In aviation, continual improvement in oxygen systems, pressure suits, parachutes, ejection seats, and other equipment and systems has been made. It is a core value in the aviation world to evaluate these systems in every accident and pool the data to understand how design improvements may improve the chances that a crew will survive in a future accident. The Columbia accident was not survivable. After the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) investigation regarding the cause of the accident was completed, further consideration produced the question of whether there were lessons to be learned about how to improve crew survival in the future. This investigation was performed with the belief that a comprehensive, respectful investigation could provide knowledge that can protect future crews in the worldwide community of human space flight. Additionally, in the course of the investigation, several areas of research were identified that could improve our understanding of both nominal space flight and future spacecraft accidents. This report is the first comprehensive, publicly available accident investigation report addressing crew survival for a human spacecraft mishap, and it provides key information for future crew survival investigations. The results of this investigation are intended to add meaning to the sacrifice of the crew's lives by making space flight safer for all future generations. Many findings, conclusions, and recommendations have resulted from this investigation that will be valuable both to spacecraft designers and accident investigators. This report provides the reader an expert level of knowledge regarding the sequence of events that contributed to the loss of Columbia's crew on February 1, 2003 and what can be learned to improve the safety of human space flight for all future crews. It is the team's expectation that readers will approach the report with the respect and integrity that the subject and the crew of Columbia deserve.

Born into a conservative family in a provincial town, in Haryana, Kalpana Chawla dreamt of the stars. Through sheer hard work, indomitable intelligence and immense faith in herself, she became the first indian woman to travel into space, and most remarkably to travel twice. A shinning career was tragically cut short in the recent Columbia mishap. In this well researched biography, journalist Padmanabhan talks to people who knew her, family and friends at Karnal, and colleagues at Nasa, to produce a moving portrait of a woman whose life was unique.

Sunita Williams is the second woman astronaut of Indian descent chosen by NASA for a space mission. The first one was Kalpana Chawla. The only difference is that Kalpana was born and brought up in India and had Indian parents while Sunita was born in America. Her father is an Indian from Gujarat while her mother is from Slovakia. She is also the second woman astronaut of Slovakian origin, the first being Ronald M. Sega.

A children's biography of Asian American Astronaut Kalpana Chawla, who was born in India and went up in the space shuttle two times.