In February 1, 2003 , the space shuttle Columbia, traveling at 12, 500 mph ( 20, 000 km ) exploded 200, 000 feet over the earth while entering the earth’s atmosphere. Seven astronauts on board met a tragic end. India lost its first ever woman astronaut Kalpana Chawla, while Israel lost its first ever astronaut Ilan Ramon.

            Kalpana Chawla was born on 1st July 1961 at Karnal in Haryana . Her father’s name is Banarasi Lal and mother’s name is Sanjogita Lal. Kalpna was aptly named- she had imagination in abundance. She was a serious and meritorious student right from her child hood. Her favourite topic in drawing class was aeroplane. Her brother Sanjay shared her fascination with aeroplanes . When she was only in Class VIII she decided to be an aeronautical engineer.

            There was a stiff initial parental opposition when she decided to join Aeronautical Engineering at Punjab Engineering college at Chandigarah. But her sisters Sunita and Deepa helped her to peruse aeronautical engineering. She joined the engineering college. There were only seven girls in the whole engineering college and she was the first girl into aerospace engineering. To her bewilderment, the Head of the Department kept trying to channel her into electrical or mechanical and she had to fight such gender stereotyping for a long time till finally she overcame it.

            Kalpna topped the aeronautical course and went to USA for higher studies. In 1984, she did MS in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Texas. She got her pilot’s license in 1987. A Ph.D., in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado followed in 1988. NASA’s shuttle programme seemed to be an exciting career opportunity for her. In 1988, she started working in NASA’s Ames Research Center in the area of powered-lift computational fluid dynamics. Her research concentrated on simulation of complex airflows encountered around aircrafts. Then came research in mapping of flow solvers to parallel computers, and testing of these solvers by carrying out powered lift computations. In 1993, she joined Overset Methods in California. Kalpna was selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate in 1994. She reported to the Johnson Space centre in 1995 in the 15th such group. Her training involved finding malfunctions, learning survival skills and using a simulator of the space shuttle cockpit. In 1996 her career touched new heights as she was assigned as the mission specialist to work on development of Robotic Situational Awareness Displays and testing space shuttle control software.                       

            In January 1998, she was assigned as crew representative for shuttle and station flight crew equipment. Subsequently she was assigned as the lead for Astronaut section. On 17th January 2003, Kalpana was on the space shuttle Columbia as it blasted off. She carried with her a white silk banner as part of a worldwide campaign to honour teachers. The banner showed a teacher’s outstretched hand blessing a girl bowing before her. Kalpana had always been a good guru herself, sponsoring and hosting students on their visit to USA as part of NASA’s exchange programme so that the next generation of astronauts would be ready to take over the baton when the time comes.

            In 45 years of human space flight,  NASA has never before lost a space crew during landing. What was it then that led to this disaster? A fuel tank explosion seems unlikely , since the crew were on the radio after Columbia began behaving erratically. Likewise, the engine that maneuver the craft inside the atmosphere seem to have tried to restore stability. For this reason, a failure of Columbia’s computerized flight controller looks unlikely, though it has yet to be entirely ruled out.

            A shuttle experiences temperature of the order of 16, 50oC when it reenters the Earth’s atmosphere , but is protected by tiles that shield it from heat. These tiles absorb the heat of reentry and then slowly release this over a period of several hours. In this way the shuttle’s aluminum skin never exceeds its design limit of 175oC . About 30, 000 tiles cover each space shuttle.

            Columbia tragedy has led some critics to even call for an end to the shuttle programme, saying it is not worth the risks and expense. However, others argue that space exploration is an investment in the future of humanity. The shuttles have not only helped build and resupply the Space Station, but have been key to maintaining the orbiting Hubble Telescope , which has looked back in space and time to virtually the birth of the universe.