“Kalpana ne Kalpana mein vishwa ki jo kalpana ki,
phir usi ki khoj mein abhiyaan bani kalpana,
Bharat ke aan-baan, shaan ki badha ke mann,
yaan pe sawar abhiyaan bani kalpana.”
Life is a game, when it may slip out of our hands no one knows. Who had known about the American space shuttle Columbia that it would meet such an accident that all the team members would never be able to land on the earth? Kalpana Chawala who always dreamed to fly in sky was bold, brave, intelligent and very sincere girl.
Kalpana Chawala was born at Karnal city in Haryana. She did her high school from Tagore school of Karnal. In 1982 she got degree in aeronautical engineering from Chandigarh in Punjab. After this in 1982 she achieved masters degree in Aerospace engineering from University of Texas. In 1988 she got Doctorate degree in Aerospace engineering from University of Clorado. She started her work in MS research Centre of NASA in 1988. She was elected as president and research scientist by company Overest Mathades of Silicon Valley in 1993.
Just after one year she was selected for space mission STS-87 of NASA Space Center and on November 1997 a spacecraft in which a space mission STS-87 was going in space was launched. Kalpana Chwala was also present in that space mission and that was her first opportunity to go in space. She was in space for 16 days during which she and her team researched abut the microgravity on substances and they found about the solidification of crystals and metals in absence of gravity. After her first space mission she was elected shuttle and station flight crew equipment as crew representative. After all her achievement she was again selected for space mission STS-107 of NASA Space center which was launched on 16th January 2003. But on 1st February when the shuttle was about to land a very bad accident took place. Space Shuttle Columbia broke into pieces when it was about 63 km. far from the earth. According to the scientists when the shuttle entered the atmosphere due to high temperature the shuttle busted. In this accident, Kalpana Chawala proceeded to her heavenly abode along with her six colleagues.
In the memory of her, Government Of Haryana has started a scholarship. Besides this students who will be first in class 10th will be awarded Kalpana Chawala gold medal. Punjab Engineering collage where she completed her Aeronautical engineering has started Kalpana Chawala memory Award. In every heart there is love, affection and respect for Kalpana Chawala. She has got pride of being the first Indian woman to go in space. She taught us that if we have full confidence and we are hard working our dreams can be realized. Not only our country but the whole world is proud of her.
We should take inspiration from her life and should try to work hard and make our dream come true. We should not fear, but face the problems boldly, only then we can achieve our aim.
RAHUL KUMAR
B. Pharma (2009 Batch)
on Dec 18th, 2009 at 11:49 am
she is imaginary now ,but still she is in every growing scientist heart .i m a aeronautical engineering student my aim is to be a great astronaut , this fire i got by her.she will glow again in nasa by my great job.
great honour to my roll model..