Kalpana Chawla was born in Karnal, India, on March 17, 1962. Her parents initially called her “Montu,” but she chose “Kalpana” when she started school. The name means “imagination,” which suited the little girl who was captivated by the idea of flying. At only three years old, she saw an airplane for the first time and decided she wanted to soar in the sky. Even though many around her believed “only men do aerospace engineering,” Kalpana refused to let that stop her. She studied aeronautical eng

"Kalpana, we are proud of you." Kalpana Chawla, first woman of Indian origin to travel to space, is hailed as an inspiration and national hero. Born in Karnal, Haryana, she moved to the US to study aerospace engineering in the 1980s. She was part of two Nasa space missions - one in 1997 and the other in 2003. She and six other astronauts died tragically on 1 February 2003 when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it was returning to Earth. On her 62nd birth anniversary, here is a clip of