Kalpana Chawla

Date of Birth : Jul 1, 1961
Date of Death : Feb 1, 2003
Place of Birth : Karnal
Kalpana Chawla (July 1, 1961 - February 1, 2003), was an Indian-born American astronaut and space shuttle mission specialist. She was lost aboard Space Shuttle Columbia on mission STS-107 when it disintegrated during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. Chawla was born in Karnal, Punjab, now in Haryana, India. Her interest in flight was inspired by J. R. D. Tata, a pioneering Indian pilot. Chawla studied aeronautical engineering at Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh, India, in 1982 where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree. Thereafter she moved to the United States to obtain a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington (1984). Chawla earned a second Master of Science degree in 1986 and Ph.D. in aerospace engineering in 1988 from the University of Colorado. Later that same year she began working for NASA Ames Research Center. Kalpana Chawla alias Ruchi married Jean-Pierre Harrison in 1982 and became a naturalized United States citizen in 1990. Chawla held a Certificated Flight Instructor rating for airplanes and gliders and Commercial Pilot licenses for single and multiengine airplanes, seaplanes and gliders. She is posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, the NASA Space Flight Medal, and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal. Dr. Kalpana Chawla became the first Indian


born Astronaut in 1997.

Pope meets astronauts from Endeavour, space station

Pope Benedict XVI, who spoke to a group of astronauts when they were in outer space, had a close encounter with them back on Earth.
The pope welcomed crew members from the International Space Station and the space shuttle Endeavour to the papal villa in Castel Gandolfo Sept. 19. The crew members, who included two Italians, are on a speaking tour of Italy.

During their visit with the pope, the astronauts gave back to him a silver medallion that he had given them to carry to the space station orbiting the earth.
Pope Benedict had spoken to the astronauts May 21 during a video hookup with the space station.
Roberto Vittori, an Italian member of the Endeavour team, had let the medallion float weightless in front of the screen for the pope to see. The medallion bore an incision duplicating the scene of the creation of man from Michelangelo’s famous fresco in the Sistine Chapel.
The nine astronauts who met the pope also gave him an atlas of the universe and a framed memento to hang on the wall containing a Vatican flag, the NASA logo and a photograph of the space shuttle.
The U.S. astronauts meeting the pope were: Catherine Coleman, Mark Kelly, Gregory H. Johnson, Edward Michael Finke, Andrew J. Feustel, Gregory E. Chamitoff and Scott Kelly.