Kalpana Chawla was born in Haryana's Karnal on March 17, 1962.
She was nicknamed as Manto by her parents.
As a child, Chawla liked writing fiction and drawing pictures of aeroplanes.
She flew to the US to obtain Master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas in Arlington. Later, she settled in the US and became a citizen.
After finishing her PhD in 1991, she applied for NASA Astronaut Corps where she kick-started her space journey.
She conducted her first flight in 1997 as a primary robotic arm operator and mission specialist.
On her second space mission in 2003, Kalpana Chawla along with other six crew members died when the Space Shuttle disintegrated over Texas and Louisiana.
To honour her bravery and achievements, the first satellite of Met-Sat series, "MetSat-1" launched by India was renamed "Kalpana-1.
Scholarships, Universities and Institutions in India and the United States have also been named in her honour.
Kalpana Chawla was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
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