Past India on Instagram: "Kalpana Chawla was an Indian-born American astronaut and aerospace engineer who made history as the first woman of Indian origin to travel to space, becoming a global symbol of determination and scientific excellence. Born on 17 March 1962 in Karnal, India, she joined NASA in 1995 and flew her first space mission in 1997 aboard Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-87). Her final mission, STS-107, launched in January 2003, focused entirely on scientific research and conducted ove