Indian-origin American astronaut Sunita Williams and her partner Wilmore are stuck in space. Both the astronauts, who flew from Florida in their Starliner spacecraft, reached the International Space Station on June 7. Their mission was only for 8 days but due to a malfunction in the spacecraft, their return to Earth has been postponed till February 2025. NASA has said that both of them will now be brought back to Earth through the Dragon capsule of Elon Musk’s company SpaceX, but it is likely to take four to five months. Sunita and Wilmore are currently in the space station and their spacecraft is being repaired.
Although this is not Sunita Williams’ first space journey, she already has a lot of experience in space. She was selected for NASA in 1998 and has spent 322 days in space before traveling in Starliner. She is a former US naval officer and also holds the record for doing the most number of spacewalks. But still this incident of her being stuck in space has reminded all Indians and people interested in space of another daughter of India “Kalpana Chawla”.
Kalpana’s spaceship had turned into a ball of fire
On 1 February 2003, NASA’s Columbia shuttle was returning to Earth from space. Just 16 minutes away from Earth, an explosion occurred and the Columbia Space Shuttle turned into a fireball. People on the ground saw it as a huge fireball coming from the sky. In this incident, all 7 astronauts, including Indian-origin American astronaut Kalpana Chawla, died.
How did Haryana’s Kalpana reach space
Kalpana Chawla was born on 17 March 1962 in Karnal, Haryana. The youngest of her siblings, Kalpana was always fascinated by the sky. So when it came to choosing a career, Kalpana completed her bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical from Punjab Engineering College. At that time, she was the only girl to do Aeronautical Engineering. Seeing Kalpana’s dedication, the family also agreed to educate her further. In 1982, she went to America. In America, Kalpana completed her post graduation degree in Aeronautical Space Engineering from the University of Texas. During this time, Kalpana married Jean Pierre Harrison of France. But Kalpana’s flight in the sky did not let her stop. In a few years, she also completed her PhD. With the completion of PhD, Kalpana got a chance to work in NASA, but her citizenship stood in the way of her dream. In 1991, Kalpana gave up Indian citizenship and took American citizenship, and then after three years her hard work was successful and she was selected for the journey to space.
first space flight
Seeing Kalpana’s high spirits and her interest in space as well as her capabilities, NASA appointed her as the prime robotic arm operator for its first space mission. In 1997, Kalpana was selected for her first space flight and on 19 November 1997, she flew for her first flight with a team of 6 astronauts. With this flight, Kalpana became the first woman and the second person of Indian origin to go to space; before this, Rakesh Sharma of India had gone to space with the help of the Soviet Union. During her mission to space, Kalpana made 252 rounds of the Earth in 365 hours and returned safely to Earth.
The second flight dragged me to death
In the year 2000, Kalpana was selected for her second space mission. She was included in this mission as a specialist. But due to malfunctions and various technical problems, this mission kept getting postponed, but on 16 January 2003, Kalpana reached space with her seven-member team aboard STS 107. The crew together did many researches and sent the information to the NASA station. After staying in space for about 16 days, when this plane was heading back towards Earth on 1 February 2003, it crashed at a distance of 16 minutes and all the astronauts died a painful death.
What was the reason behind this tragic accident?
After this accident, NASA banned space travel for the next two years. Investigation into this accident revealed that a piece of foam broke off from the shuttle’s external tank and hit the wing of the spacecraft, causing a hole in the wing. The Columbia Space Shuttle started filling with gases as it returned to Earth rapidly and before anyone could understand anything, all the passengers died within 15 seconds.
In view of Kalpana’s unprecedented contribution to space, NASA named one of its computers after her. India’s ISRO has also honoured her by naming weather-related satellites after her.