Posted on 02/16/2003 11:31:42 PM PST by anymouse
On this page: Bios, profiles, news stories, memorial services
On Feb. 1, 2003, Indian-American Dr. Kalpana C. Chawla, 41, was one of seven astronauts killed on the Space Shuttle Columbia. This a site to help journalists cover her story.
PRONUNCIATION: KULL-puh-na CHAO-la ("kull" rhymes with "hull" ... "puh" rhymes with the "puh" sound in "pundit"... "CHAO" rhymes with "ciao" or "chow") - journalists and senior government officials have been mispronouncing the name.
MEANING OF HER FIRST NAME: among the meanings in Hindi - imagination, a dream, fantasy, something that is almost impossible to attaining.
Ode for Kalpana
By Ambassador Robert D. Blackwill
(Blackwill, who has taught poetry at university, is U.S. Ambassador to India.)
With years as first in her class
She knew the fears?
That if you ask too much of it
Metal shrieks, tears,
Falls apart in pieces.
A technical fact to her.
All the world to us.
Fire consumes a nation's heart.
This Karnal girl sought the skies.
Space shuttles whispered in her ear
And she answered head to feet.
We keep her smile in that last video.
Like Seneca, she thought
"The whole universe is my native land."
Now more than ever, dear one.
We weep
Some Facts about Dr. Kalpana C. Chawla
- First and only Indian-American in space (she was born in India and became a naturalized U.S. citizen)
- Selected as an astronaut in 1994; first mission in 1997, this was her second mission
- U.S. doctorate & M.S. in aerospace engineering and B.S. in aeronautical engineering from India
- Second Indian in space, after Indian citizen Rakesh Sharma, who flew on a Soviet mission
- One of only a handful of Asian American astronauts and the only South Asian
- Married to Frenchman Jean-Pierre Harrison, a freelance flying instructor
- Born: July 1, 1961, in Karnal, India
Articles, bios, memorial services, tributes and more below
Photos of Dr. Chawla
...... she was born in India and became a naturalized U.S. citizen ..... >>
Correction!
Doctor Chawla was born in India and became an AMERICAN!
America is the only Nation in the History of the Human Species in which the process of becoming American is defined in Our Beloved FRaternal Republic's Founding Law.
[Except by birth] There are no accidental, "naturalized" and/or "second-third or fifth-class" Americans.
[Unless, that is, by their own choice, as is the case with such fifth-and-lower-rated, envy-motivated and rage-driven anti-America haters as Daschle Ararfat, T Kennedy, Noam Chomsky, D Glover, BS Streissand, HB&C KKKlinton, Ed Ass-nah, R O'Donnell, Peter Rather, Ted Brokau, Dan Clift, Sam Jennings, Eleanor Koppel et al -- none of whom is fit to wipe an AMERICAN's arse -- let alone to call himself one!]
There is a Space bump list here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/involved?group=180
You can find all threads that are space pinging there.
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