Kalpana Chawla’s 18th death anniversary: A second space voyage that became her last

February 1, 2003 was a day of great loss for the country and the world. On February 1, Kalpana Chawla, a first woman astronaut of Indian origin to fly to space breathed her last. All the people were waiting for her to come back, but an untoward incident happened on this day.

Kalpana who was born in Karnal, Haryana in 1962 moved to the United States at the age of 22 in 1984 and studied at university of Texas. She was conferred a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering specialisation two years later. Chawla joined NASA as an astronaut in 1995, and got through for her maiden flight in 1998.

Kalpana‘s return from 2nd space voyage

It is said that Kalpana was never fearful about failure and was fervent about becoming the astronaut and often believed that she was meant for space. She made her second space voyage at the age of 41 that became the last. It was known that Kalpana Chawla’s shuttle plane crashed and this ill-fated accident took away her life. She was one of the seven astronauts who passed away on board Space Shuttle Columbia after it decayed during its re-entry into the earth’s outer layer.

Tributes poured in across the world today on the 18th death anniversary. On twitter, Ministry of culture paid tribute to Kalpana Chawla on the death anniversary by saying that she inspired millions of girls to dream big and fly high.