Kalpana Chawla

Flight engineer Kalpana Chawla was a native of Karnal, India. Her name is pronounced CULL-puh-na CHAV-la ('cull' rhymes with 'hull'-'puh' rhymes with the 'puh' sound in 'pun') which is rather difficult for most Americans, so she went by her nickname "K.C." She became a naturalized U.S. citizen and was selected as an astronaut in 1995.

K.C. loved to fly, especially in 'tail dragger' acrobatic aircraft.

K.C.'s first spaceflight was the STS-87 mission in November 1997. On that flight she was responsible for the Spartan spacecraft and operating the shuttle's robot arm. She accidentally left out a step in the procedures resulting in Spartan not getting activated. An unplanned spacewalk was needed to capture Spartan and put it back into the shuttle's cargo bay. Chawla was also responsible for operating a variety of microgravity experiments.

Many Indian press have tried to claim that Spartan wasn't her fault or that it was vague instructions and bad software which was actually caused the problem. The investigation board noted those problems but also found K.C. at fault. She's always acknowledged her personal mistakes with Spartan. Her honesty saved her career. Many of her colleagues felt that she went to the extra effort to understand every detail about her responsibilities on STS-107 to make up for what had happened on Spartan.

• On K.C.'s first mission "Mishra Piloo" by Ravi Shankar was played as her wakeup call in space.
• The Executive Summary of the Spartan 201-4 Close Call investigation.
• Kalpana Chawla told author Philip Chien about what happened with Spartan on STS-87.
• K.C. explained why the crew trip to India didn't occur after STS-87.
• Kalpana talked about how she felt about the rats on STS-107.
• Kalpana Chawla's official NASA bio.

Young Kalpana growing up in India	KC in college. Her room has photos of airplanes and the space shuttle	Before becoming an astronaut KC worked on aircraft design	KC loved to fly light aircraft	The 1995 astronaut class including Rick Husband, Mike Anderson, and Kalpana Chawla
KC trains how to use a spacesuit	The official STS-87 crew portrait	Kalpana Chawla	Kalpana Chawla's official NASA portrait	KC helps Japanese astronaut Takao Doi with his spacesuit
STS-87 crewmembers inspect equipment they're going to use	Kalpana Chawla and husband Jean-Pierre Harrison	KC about to enter Columbia for the STS-87 mission	STS-87 launches with Kalpana Chawla aboard	The Spartan 201 spacecraft on the end of the robot arm
Kalpana Chawla operates the shuttle's robot arm	Astronauts Winston Scott and Takao Doi capture the Spartan spacecraft	Astronauts Winston Scott and Takao Doi perform a spacewalk to capture Spartan	Kalpana Chawla works on an experiment inside a glovebox	An on-orbit photo of the STS-87 crew
Kalpana Chawla works on an experiment while commander Kevin Kregel watches	Columbia lands at the Kennedy Space Center	Columbia lands, completing the STS-87 mission