Kalpana Chawla: Lesser-Known Facts About 1st Indian Woman in Space

From Karnal to the Cosmos Kalpana Chawla was born in a little town in Haryana, but she had her sights set on reaching beyond the stars

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A Self-Made Trailblazer After finishing her aerospace engineering degree in India, she then moved to the United States to pursue further degrees

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The First Indian Woman in Space In 1997, she flew on the Space Shuttle Columbia and became a dream for millions of young Indian people

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Scientist at Heart She was a scientist and had completed experiments in microgravity during her first space mission

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Humble, Poetic, and Philosophical She loved poetry, especially that of Tagore's, and she issued these poetic musings about the relative vastness of outer space

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