Kalpana Chawla was the first Indian origin woman to fly to space. She was born on March 17, 1962, in Karnal. Kalpana became a citizen of the United States in 1991. All pics/AFP

Kalpana was fascinated by aeroplanes and flying ever since she was a child. She would often go with her father to watch planes at clubs.

Kalpana graduated from the Tagore School and was good in academics. She moved to the United States in 1982 after completing a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College.

Kalpana has two Masters Degrees. She got her first Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1984, followed by the second in 1986. She did her PhD in aerospace engineering in 1988 from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Chawla began working at NASA Ames Research Centre in 1988. Chawla flew to space for the first time in 1997 when she was chosen to be a mission specialist and primary robotic arm operator in the Space Shuttle Columbia. With this, she became the first Indian-born woman to fly in the space.

Kalpana became the first woman of Indian origin to fly to space as part of the six-astronaut crew that flew the Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87.

However, as ill-luck would have it, on 1 February 2003, Chawla's second flight to space disintegrated on its way back. Kalpana died along with six others.

This October 2001 NASA photo shows the seven STS-107 crew members posing for the traditional crew portrait. Seated in front are astronauts Rick D. Husband (L), mission commander, Kalpana Chawla, (C) mission specialist, and William C. McCool, pilot. Standing are (From L) astronauts David M. Brown, Laurel B. Clark, and Michael P. Anderson, all mission specialists, and Ilan Ramon, payload specialist representing the Israeli Space Agency.

The mortal remains of Chawla and rest of her crew members were cremated and scattered at Zion National Park in Utah.

Kalpana Chawla was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honour. There are several streets, universities, institutions and scholarships named in honour of Kalpana Chawla. One of the seven peaks of the Columbia Hills is also named after Kalpana Chawla.

Kalpana met her husband Jean-Pierre Harrison on December 2, 1982, and the two got married in December 1983. Harrison wrote the authoritative biography on the astronaut titled, 'The Edge of Time'

On February 5, 2003, Atal Bihari Vajpayee who was the then Prime Minister of India had announced that the meteorological series of satellites, MetSat, was to be renamed "Kalpana". The first satellite of the series, "MetSat-1", which was launched by India on September 12, 2002, was renamed "Kalpana-1".

There are several streets, universities, institutions and scholarships which have been named in honour of Kalpana Chawla. One of the seven peaks of the Columbia Hills is also named after Kalpana Chawla.