Kalpana Chawla's space dream did India proud

NDTV ^ | February 1, 2003 | NDTV Correspondent

[Gamecock]

Interesting how we hardly notice a routine shuttle flights, but in other countries, their first astronaut is a great source of national pride.

May God comfort their souls and the hearts of those left behind.

[Joe_October]

I'm not from India but she did me proud as well.

[tictoc]

I am sorry for India's loss.

[sheik yerbouty]

Ditto!

[elbucko]

...but in other countries, their first astronaut is a great source of national pride.

Yes. My neighbors are from India and are deeply saddened by this tragedy, but are at the same time proud of this young woman. So am I.

And proud that such a place as America exists, that encourages anyone who dares to become the best that they can be.

God bless them all.

[CalvaryJohn]

Here's my tribute. I've had this song going in my head for at least a month, now, I suspect, prophetically. It's the theme song from the new Enterprise, "Faith of the Heart".http://scifi.myrealm.co.uk/audio/enterprise2.mp3

[Aeronaut]

I was fortunate enough to work with her several years ago. It really brought this tragedy to a personal level for me, having known and admired her.

[AmishDude]

Ping.

[Mamzelle]

Requiem for a Science Astronaut...bump

[a_Turk]

Fox was listing the astronauts and couldn't resist mentioning that she made a number of mistakes on her only other space mission.. I hate news people sometimes..

[Alberta's Child]

I don't mean to sound insensitive, but for a long time now I've wondered why the U.S. is so willing to put foreign nationals aboard these flights.

I can understand why Russians would be involved, since they had a space program that was comparable to ours. But including an Indian and an Israeli really seems excessive.

[xJones]

I was fortunate enough to work with her several years ago. It really brought this tragedy to a personal level for me, having known and admired her.

She sounds like a delightful person to have known. She certainly had an impressive amount of achievements for a life cut short.

[antaresequity]

[general_re]

I don't mean to sound insensitive, but for a long time now I've wondered why the U.S. is so willing to put foreign nationals aboard these flights.

Not an insensitive question - the US regularly puts foreign astronauts on board because it's a cheap method of diplomacy and engendering good feelings about the US around the world. Basically, it's the same reason that they put John Glenn on a shuttle - to make folks feel warm and fuzzy about the space program and the US. And, IMO, there's nothing wrong with PR, so long as it doesn't interfere with the primary mission of the space program, research and exploration.

Although, strictly speaking, that's not the case with this lady, as I understand that she was a naturalized US citizen, and not a foreign national as was the Israeli fellow....

[SamAdams76]

I don't mean to sound insensitive, but for a long time now I've wondered why the U.S. is so willing to put foreign nationals aboard these flights.

Kalpana Chawla is an American. Not a foreigner.

[dagnabbit]

She was a United States astronaut and U.S. citizen, who happened to grow up in India. She was not an "Indian astronaut".

[jimfree]

I don't mean to sound insensitive, but for a long time now I've wondered why the U.S. is so willing to put foreign nationals aboard these flights.

I can understand why Russians would be involved, since they had a space program that was comparable to ours. But including an Indian and an Israeli really seems excessive.

Dr. Chawla wasn't here on an exchange program. She was an American of Indian origin. Read the bio again.

[Alberta's Child]

I stand corrected. In all the news items today I haven't seen any specific reference to her being a U.S. citizen. In fact, all of the comments they're posting are from relatives in India.

[NovemberCharlie]

Fox was listing the astronauts and couldn't resist mentioning that she made a number of mistakes on her only other space mission.. I hate news people sometimes..

I was watching FNC a bit later, and the anchor apologised for that. He said he'd been reading the NASA bio aloud, without thinking about it until the words were out of his mouth.