People often show respect to cricketers by naming stadium stands after them, celebrities by making movies on their lives, and in this case of late astronaut Kalpana Chawla by naming a spacecraft after her.
Northrop Grumman named their next resupply spacecraft to space station after the famous Indian astronaut Kalpana Chawla. The naming announcement was made on 8th September, and soon, the aircraft named after her would be on the way to ISS.
Northrop Grumman’s view on the naming
According to them, “Northrop Grumman is proud to name the NG-14 Cygnus spacecraft after former astronaut Kalpana Chawla. It is the company’s tradition to name each Cygnus after an individual who has played a pivotal role in human spaceflight”.
Northrop Grumman’s website also said, “While Chawla made the ultimate sacrifice in service to the space program, her legacy lives on through her fellow astronauts and those inspired to follow in her footsteps. Her final research conducted onboard Columbia helped us understand astronaut health and safety during spaceflight. Northrop Grumman is proud to celebrate the life of Kalpana Chawla and her dream of flying through the air and in space”.
In a tweet, they mentioned :
“Today we honor Kalpana Chawla, who made history at @NASA as the first female astronaut of Indian descent. Her contributions to human spaceflight have had a lasting impact,” the company tweeted on Wednesday. “
The spacecraft is scheduled to launch on September 29, from Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. So, very soon, we will have a space ship named after our beloved and respected Kalpana Chawla.
About Kalpana Chawla
Kalapana Chawla was the first Indian woman to go to space. She was born in Haryana on March 17, 1962. She got her bachelor of science degree in aeronautic engineering in 1982 from Punjab EngineerinCollegege.
From her child and, she was into flying and aircraft. She was so into it that she went to pursue higher education in the US. She got her Master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas. Then continued her studies to complete her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado.
She was selected in her first flight in 1997. Her first flight was in the space shuttle Columbia where she joined as a mission specialist. She died in 2003 along with six other crew members when the spacecraft disintegrated on re-entry in Earth’s atmosphere.
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