Kalpana Chawla

Hello! My name is Kalpana. When I was a little girl living in a place called India, I loved looking up at the big, blue sky. I would watch airplanes zoom past, like shiny birds, and I would wave to them. At night, I loved to look at the twinkling stars and I dreamed of flying up there with them one day.

To get closer to the stars, I knew I had to learn all about airplanes and spaceships. I went to school and studied very hard. I learned how things fly and what makes them go up, up, up! It was like solving a big, exciting puzzle. All that learning helped me get a special job at a place called NASA, where they build rockets that go to space.

In the year 1997, my biggest dream came true! I became an astronaut, which is like a star-explorer. I put on my special space suit and blasted off in a space shuttle called Columbia. Floating in space was so much fun! I looked out the window and saw our whole world, the Earth. It looked like a beautiful blue and white marble.

I loved being in space so much that I went on a second trip in 2003. Even though that trip had a sad ending, I am so happy I got to follow my dreams. People remember me as the first woman from India to travel among the stars. I hope my story reminds you that if you have a big dream, you should chase it all the way to the sky.