Kalpana Chawla was born in Karnal, India, on 17 March 1962. She studied aeronautical engineering in India before pursuing graduate work in aerospace engineering in the United States. NASA selected her as an astronaut in 1994.
Engineering came before the famous journey
Chawla worked in computational fluid dynamics and held flight instructor and commercial pilot qualifications. She first flew on Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997, operating its robotic arm. NASA’s STS-107 memorial records her education, responsibilities and research.
Remember the whole crew
On her second mission, STS-107, the seven-member crew conducted experiments around the clock. Columbia was lost during re-entry on 1 February 2003. Thoughtful remembrance names Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Laurel Clark, Ilan Ramon and Kalpana Chawla, rather than turning a shared mission into one person’s legend.
Follow the path behind a dream
Choose a goal that feels distant and identify its next learnable skill. Ask an engineer or educator about the everyday practice behind their work. Ambition becomes more useful when attached to study, teamwork and patient revision.
Save 17 March as a Daytely custom date with one space or engineering question for next year.
