A dare to dream
Remember
the Space craft details described
earlier? One such Space shuttle that flew covering a distance of
10,600,000 km for about for about 15 days, 22 hours,
20 minutes, 32 seconds was the STS-107.
It was 113th and the final flight of
the Space
Shuttle program Columbia
by NASA.
The crew was of seven astronauts who performed
nearly 80 experiments in the space. Some among them were studying earth
and space science, advanced technology development, and astronaut health
and safety. Besides this, some experiments related to daily human life were
also performed. Testing flowers was one. They discovered that flowers in space
develop an aroma, quite distinct from their fragrance on Earth. Two flowers: a
rose and an Asian rice flower for testing. But their fragrance never did reach
the Earth.
On completing the experiments, they started
their travel back. But while entering the earth’s atmosphere led an unfortunate
and irreparable damage to the space craft and mankind both on February 1
2003. On investigation of failure, it was determined to have been caused by
a piece of foam that broke off during launch and damaged
the thermal protection system on the leading edge of the left wing.
Amongst the crew was our first Indian Woman to
enter the space: Kalpana Chawla. She
had an imagination and the dare to dream.
An Aeronautical Engineer who was born and
brought up in India, moved to the United States in 1982 and obtained a Master
of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas
at Arlington in 1984. Post this she earned a doctorate
in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado in 1988.
She completed two space missions during her
journey in NASA. In the initial mission
of STS-87, Kalpana traveled over 16737177.6
kilometers in 252 orbits of the earth. She was for more than 15 Days and 12
Hours in the space. On January 16, 2003, she returned to space aboard Space
Shuttle Columbia on the ill-fated STS-107 mission where she went on eternal rest while entering the earth.
She is the first Indian woman to enter space. She
managed to overcome all the difficulties and fulfill her dream being an
inspiration to everyone to chase their imagination and conquer! Several
recognitions were given later in her remembrance.
We pay a humble tribute to Kalpana: the creative and powerful soul.
ketaki kardile
