On the occasion of International Women’s Day, the Non-Fungible tokens (NFTs) marketplace, GuardianLink decided to launch the NFT collection of the first Indian-American Woman Space Astronaut Kalpana Chawla. The NFT collection can be bought from beyondlife.club.
An inspiration to many, she was the first India-origin American Astronaut to go into space. Born in Karnal, Haryana, India, Chawla moved to the United States for higher studies, eventually beginning her career at NASA, conducting research in fluid dynamics at the Ames Research Center in California. She became the first woman of Indian origin to flew on the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997.
However, her second flight to space proved to be her unfortunate last as well. Her second flight, Space Shuttle Columbia, crashed during her re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere on February 1, 2004. She was one of the seven crew members who tragically died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster when the spacecraft disintegrated during its re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.
The special NFT collection will feature ten images of Chawla, with 25 copies of each image. In total, this series will have 250 NFT pieces. Each NFT will also carry a quote from Chawla, adding to the value quotient of this series.
The images were released upon the consent of Chawla’s husband Jean-Pierre Harrison, a flight instructor by profession. He said in a statement, “In recognition of Kalpana’s achievements, I have approved the release of NFTs consisting of rare and previously unseen photographs of moments from her life.”
The images that are a part of the NFTs haven’t been released online. The funds collected basis this sale will be donated to an Indian child welfare organization. The name of the institution hasn’t been disclosed. Even the pricing of the NFTs hasn’t been publicly revealed.
Ramkumar Subramaniam, Co-founder & CEO of GuardianLink added, “India’s NFT space is growing at a massive speed and we are witnessing an increased adoption among users. It is indeed a proud moment for us to have been launching Kalpana Chawla’s inspirational quotes and pictures in the form of NFTs on our platform.
We are glad that through us and with the help of Jean-Pierre Harrison, we will be able to connect and touch the lives of her million fans. With its foundation in Creative Media, GuardianLink has always led the race in terms of designing high impact creative NFTs protected by our Anti.RIP technology and legitimacy protocol, protecting the rights of our creators”.