Chandigarh, February 2
She always wanted to be back in space. After travelling 6.5 million miles in 252 orbits of earth and logging 376 hours and 34 minutes in space as a mission specialist and prime robotic arm operator on STS-87, the fourth US Microgravity Payload flight, Kalpana Chawla had on November 17, 1997, become the first Indian-American to fly in the US space shuttle.

“It was a big deal for India that I went up. I was impressed because I didn’t expect to see that much interest,” she had told an interviewer after her return from space.

Back on earth, half a world away from Lyndon N. Johnson Space Center, Kalpana’s home town- Karnal - in India celebrated her accomplishment.

“Launch time there was the middle of the night,” she said, “but they were all up to watch. They had a torchlight celebration, sort of like the fourth of July. And the city decorated the house where I was born with lights,” Kalpana had told one of her interviewer in January, 1998.

Her father, a businessman, is currently in the USA. One of her brothers, Mr B.L. Chawla, now lives in New Delhi.

Kalpana was the second graduate from the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) to travel to space. On her return from 16 days in space, she had in an interview with the e-news magazine of the UTA, expressed a strong desire to return to space, though she missed earth’s fresh air and warm sunshine.

Just before she settled down to sleep each day aboard the space shuttle, astronaut Kalpana Chawla (also known as KC) pressed close to the window and watched with wonder as her home planet twirled below , wrote UTA e-newsletter of January, 1998, copies of which she had emailed to some of her friends in Chandigarh and Karnal.

“In the pre-sleep period, when you’re looking out of the window, you’re floating,” she had told her interviewer from the UTA.

Following are the excerpts from her interview with the UTA:

“You see the continents go by, the thunderstorms shimmering in the clouds, the city lights at night. The Nile looks like a lifeline in the Sahara. And we looked down on Mount Everest. Earth is very beautiful. I wish everyone could see it.”

Kalpna, the first native of India to go to space, came to the USA in 1982 to attend the UTA. Now a naturalised citizen of the USA she originally came to Arlington because of UTA’s international reputation and because the university offered the financial aid she needed.

“I was interested in aerospace and flying, and the USA is really the best place in the world for flying,” said Kalpana. However, a pilot’s licence was still a dream when, as an aeronautics student at Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh she began searching for a US school.

“I contacted the United States Education Foundation and asked them how to come to the USA. They sent a list of colleges that offer aerospace engineering, and I took the list to my department chair. He recommended 10 schools. In the end, of the schools that accepted me, the UTA had the best offer.”

After graduation from the UTA, Kalpana continued preparations for her future in space, first earning her doctoral degree from the University of Colorado, then going to work for the NASA Ames Research Center. After becoming a US citizen, she sent in her application for the astronaut programme and was accepted in 1994. NASA selects approximately 20 astronauts every two years from more than 4,000 applicants. The rigorous training began in 1995.

In addition to learning about space travel, astronauts study and practice water and forest survival techniques in case of an emergency ejection from a NASA aircraft. Such training includes how to build a shelter from parachute gear. They train for gravity-less living in huge water tanks at the space center in Houston. And they spend months learning various systems of shuttle operation, utilising high fidelity simulators.

Once they complete training, astronauts receive assignments to various technical positions where they work and wait for their turn in space.

“The day I was called, the officer asked me about the project I was working on. I thought he was really interested so I began telling him. Then he said, ‘Well, I guess you’re just too busy to go on a space flight.’ ‘No, no!’ I said, assuring him that I was ready.”

Kalpana’s first flight, the space shuttle Columbia STS-87 mission, was the eighth shuttle mission in 1997 and the 88th mission flown since the programme began in 1981.

“Once the solid rocket boosters fire, there is no stopping the rocket,” she said. Among the mementos Kalpana took into space first time was a UTA T-shirt emblazoned with “UT Arlington Aerospace Engineering” on one side, and “as a matter of fact, I am a rocket scientist,” on the other.