Kalpana Chawla

Hello! My name is Kalpana Chawla, and I want to tell you my story. I was born in a city called Karnal in India on March 17th, 1962. When I was a little girl, my favorite thing to do was look up at the sky. I would watch airplanes fly high above and dream about soaring among the clouds and stars myself one day. The sky looked like a giant, magical blanket, and I knew I wanted to explore it. This dream of flying stayed with me and made me want to learn everything I could about how to get up there.

To make my dream come true, I knew I had to study very hard. I loved learning about how airplanes worked and what made them fly. After I finished school in India, I wanted to learn even more. In 1982, I moved to the United States to continue my studies. I went to big universities where I learned so much about science and flying machines. All that hard work helped me become an aerospace engineer, which is a scientist who designs spacecraft! I was getting closer to my dream of going into space.

All my hard work paid off when I was chosen to become an astronaut at NASA in 1995! It was the most exciting day. After lots of training, I was ready for my biggest adventure. In 1997, I flew into space for the very first time on the Space Shuttle Columbia. Looking down at our beautiful Earth from so far away was amazing. It looked like a big, spinning blue and white marble. I felt so happy and proud because I was the first woman born in India to ever travel to space. I wanted to show children everywhere that they could reach for the stars, too.

In 2003, I went on my second mission to space on the Space Shuttle Columbia to do important science experiments. This journey was my last one. I lived to be 40 years old, and I spent my life following my biggest dream. My journey shows that it doesn't matter where you start; if you have a dream and work hard, you can do amazing things. I hope my story inspires you to look up at the stars and follow your own dreams, no matter how big they seem.