Kalpana Chawla was the first Indian-born woman to travel to space. Chawla died six years later, on February 1, 2003, due to a technical issue with her space shuttle Columbia. However, people still admire and appreciate her hard work. Her brilliance, in particular, has motivated young people in India and around the world to pursue careers in spaceflight.
Chawla’s space shuttle broke up during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven men on board too. The space shuttle returned to Earth on February 1, 2003, intending to land at Kennedy Space Center. However, as the shuttle passed through Earth’s atmosphere, hot gas flowed into the shuttle’s wing, where a briefcase-sized piece of insulation had broken off during launch and damaged the thermal protection system, the shield that shelters the shuttle from heat during re-entry.
The astronauts were tossed around as the ship rolled and bucked. The ship depressurized in less than a minute, killing the crew. Rick Husband, Laurel Clark, Ilan Ramon, David Brown, William McCool, and Michael Anderson were also on board.
In short, Chawla died along with the other six crew members in the Space Shuttle Columbia accident on 1 February 2003, when Columbia was destroyed over Texas during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.
Read Further: Kalpana Chawla
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