American History, Unfiltered: Kalpana Chawla

American History, Unfiltered:A post series highlighting people from traditionally marginalized groups who accomplished great things for America.

🌍🌺Happy Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month!🌺🌍

The First South Asian American Woman in Space

Kalpana Chawla is most known for her untimely death upon the Space Shuttle Columbia; the shuttle that disintegrated over the Southern U.S. on its reentry into the earth’s atmosphere after a 16-day mission, only 16 minutes before its scheduled landing. She died at only age 40, along with 6 other crew members. 

But her story is more than just the tragic end.

She was born in Karnal, India in 1962. Growing up, she had a passion for flight. She watched planes with her father, joined local flying clubs, and eventually earned a degree in aeronautical engineering from Punjab Engineering College in India. After earning her degree she moved to the U.S. and, with a focus on aerospace engineering, earned a Master’s degree from the University of Texas and a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado. 

In 1988, at age 26, she began her career with NASA as a powered-lift computational fluid dynamics researcher at NASA’s Ames Research Center.

While accomplishing all these career goals, she also obtained her U.S. citizenship, now qualifying for NASA’s astronaut corps in 1991. Her selection for astronaut corps was in 1994 and her training began in 1995.

Her first mission was STS-87, aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia, a year after her astronaut training began, in November 1996. This mission marked her as the first woman of Indian descent to fly into space. 

She spent so much of her career encouraging young Indian girls to follow in her path; to enter into a field where so few women of color are heard, respected and represented. Today there are more women of color in these career fields and Kalpana Chawla is one of the strong women we have to thank for paving the way.