Remembering Kalpana Chawla on her 13th death anniversary: some facts about her

It has been 13 tragic years since NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas wth it's 7 member crew while re-entering the earth's atmosphere.

It claimed lives of all the seven crew members. Among those who died on February 1 was India's pride Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian woman in space.

Here are some of the facts that you should know about Kalpana:

Her nickname was Monto. Though she was famously known by her big name Kalpana Chawla. Her nickname was Monto. In 1997, Kalpana first flew on Space Shuttle Columbia STS-87 as a mission specialist On her first mission, Kalpana travelled over 10.4 million miles in 252 orbits of the earth, logging more than 372 hours in space. She held many positions in NASA even before becoming an astronaut. She became a US citizen and got a PhD before trying to reach space. There is an asteroid and satellite named after her. A hill in the Columbia Hills on Mars is named after her as Chawla Hill.

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