A star smiles over my head

- Trishu Bhattacharya VIII A

Whenever I gaze the stars on a clear night sky , a face appears fascinating me . My heart fills
with thrill to see the face with a beaming smile of Kalpana Chawla .

Kalpana Chawla was India's first woman to travel into space to undertake research works on
Micro gravity . She has been a role model to thousands of girls like me to something great in a
field of science Kalpana Chawla was born on the 1st of July, 1961 in a small town in Karnal
located in the state of Haryana. Kalpana Chawla enjoyed flying, hiking and reading and always
had that “ Never Say Die “ attitude .

She got educated at the Tagore Public School and later enrolled into Punjab Engineering College
to complete her Aeronautical Engineering Degree in 1982 to chase her long cherished dreams .
In fact she was the first woman to study aeronautical engineering in her batch. She , then went to
US to come closer to her dreams in year 1982.
In 1984, she completed her M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas in
Arlington. In 1988, she obtained a Ph.D. in the same subject from the University of Colorado at
Boulder.

Due to her multiple degrees in Aerospace, she got a job in NASA . In 1995 that she became a
part of the NASA 'Astronaut Corps'.

Kalpana Chawla created history for being the first Indian woman to travel in a space shuttle. She
had the privilege of journeying as far as 10 million km. In 2000, she was again assigned on her
second flight mission as a part of Flight STS-107. Kalpana's responsibility included microgravity
experiments.

Chawla died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster which occurred on February 1, 2003when
Columbia disintegrated over Texas and Louisiana as it reentered Earth's atmosphere, killing all
seven crew members.

During the launch of Space shuttle Columbia a piece of foam insulation broke off from the Space
Shuttle . At the time of reentry to earth , high friction cause fire in space shuttle .
 During her lifetime, Kalpana Chawla was awarded with three awards namely the Congressional
Space Medal of Honor, NASA Space Flight Medal and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal.
Despite living in America, Kalpana Chawla was considered the pride of India. Even though her
death was sudden and unfortunate, she left a mark in the nation and will be remembered forever.

She flashed into the sky of science like a meteor but now guides and inspires millions of girls
like me like a pole star . Those who still think girls as weaker gender , Kalpana Chawla is a ready
reminder how wrong they are .

Her inspiring lifeline rewrites the phrase as “The hands that milk a cow ,can steer a spacecraft “ !