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An inspiration and idol to countless girls, Kalpana Chawla was the first Indian woman to fly in space. Born on 17 March 1962, in Karnal, Haryana. She acquired her Bachelor of Engineering degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh in 1982. After completing her graduation in Engineering, she moved from India to the US in 1982 and made her first space trip aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997. During her first space mission, she also spoke to the then Prime Minister of India Inderjit K Gujral from the orbit. Chawla's second space trip in 2003 ended...

Ten years ago Friday, the space shuttle Columbia was destroyed and its seven astronauts killed during the final minutes of its flight. NASA will mark the 10th anniversary of the accident at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, and take part in an observance at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, where three of the astronauts are buried. Other commemorations Friday include events at a 2-year-old Columbia museum in Hemphill, Texas, where shuttle debris fell. PBS is also airing a new documentary about Ilan Ramon, the Israeli astronaut on Columbia. The wife of the shuttle's commander, Evelyn Husband Thompson, said she has seen...

A piece of the ill-fated space shuttle Columbia has surfaced in eastern Texas, where a severe drought has dried up a lake and exposed debris from the 2003 accident, NASA said Tuesday. The globe-shaped object that turned up in Lake Nacogdoches, north of Houston, was one of 18 tanks on Columbia that helped power the shuttle, said NASA spokeswoman Lisa Malone. Member of NASA's Columbia Reconstruction Team is pictured at the Kennedy Space Center in 2003 "Late last week, we were contacted by the Nacogdoches sheriff's office letting us know that they had found an item of what they thought...

For those who have the time to quietly reflect, as we choose for our nation our leadership, I humbly submit that there is little better "signal" of character than this solemn memorial to fallen heroes...

The foam that struck the space shuttle Columbia soon after liftoff -- resulting in the deaths of seven astronauts -- was defective, the result of applying insulation to the shuttle's external fuel tank, NASA said on Friday. The official investigation into the accident, conducted by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, left the matter open, since none of the foam or the fuel tank could be recovered for study. A suitcase-sized chunk of foam from an area of the tank known as the left bipod, one of three areas where struts secure the orbiter to the fuel tank during liftoff, broke...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - For the rest of time, these three men will be linked by the Columbia disaster, strangers thrown together by that awful Saturday morning in February. The accident has altered their lives forever: NASA's most visible persona during those dreadful first days, a scientist who would dig into the cause of the accident, the grieving husband of one of the two women on the flight. Ron Dittemore, the space shuttle program manager who took the most dramatic public fall, remains emotionally scarred one year later. He left NASA and now holds a low-profile aerospace job in...

Former President George H.W. Bush Urges All Americans to Support Families of Columbia Shuttle Crew 1/28/04 10:42:00 AM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National and Assignment Desks Contact: Laurie Rossbach of the Columbia Shuttle Memorial Trust, 202-326-1797 or laurie.rossbach@edelman.com News Advisory: On Feb. 1, 2003, our nation and the world lost the seven brave and dedicated crew members of the Space Shuttle Columbia. But the Columbia seven - Rick, Willie, Dave, Mike, KC, Laurel, and Ilan -- are not the only heroes of STS-107. As we approach the first anniversary of this tragedy, their husbands and wives, sons and daughters, mothers and...

Speaking at the church where they have found solace since space shuttle Columbia broke apart, two widows of the astronauts said Sunday that their husbands followed their dreams into space. "The very first thing that captured Rick's imagination when he was 4 was when they placed man on the moon," said shuttle commander Rick Husband's wife, Evelyn. "He was so excited about that." Husband spoke alongside Sandy Anderson, wife of Columbia astronaut Michael Anderson, at Grace Community Church in Houston. Husband said she thinks President Bush's plan announced earlier this month to return man to the moon and go eventually...

<p>NASA penalized the contractor that maintains and operates the space shuttle fleet $45.2 million for its role in the shuttle Columbia accident, according to a letter NASA released Thursday.</p> <p>The United Space Alliance, a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, had to forfeit the money even though NASA said the contractor did nothing specific to cause the accident.</p>

Columbia disaster astronaut's diary found Pieces of an Israeli astronaut's diary, which plunged to earth with the stricken Columbia space shuttle, have been found in a field. The pages of Ilan Ramon's journal were found by a native American searching fields in Texas shortly after the crash in February last year. Initially, it was not known what the pieces of paper were. But when they were shown to Ramon's wife she confirmed it as his Hebrew handwriting. Many of the pages were bleached as they tumbled into the atmosphere at super-heated temperatures. But Israeli forensic scientists, helped by museum manuscript...

Spacehab Inc., a maker of living modules for the U.S. space shuttle, filed an $87.7 million formal claim against NASA on Tuesday for equipment destroyed during the Columbia disaster, citing the findings of the investigation board. Spacehab, which had filed a draft claim in July, said it revised its newest claim to incorporate the findings of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board report. The CAIB said in August that NASA officials missed eight chances to address fears that falling insulation foam may have damaged the shuttle, which broke apart over Texas last Feb. 1, killing all seven astronauts aboard. The foam...

Marking 100 years of man's success in conquering the skies, 2003 saw milestones for both what has been done and what is yet to come. Celebrations throughout the year culminated in the Dec. 17 anniversary of the Wright brothers' first successful powered flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C., a feat which set in motion changes that are still being felt and improved upon today. In the century since that flight, worldwide air travel has become common; space travel has moved from science fiction to reality; and air power has altered warfare. Although the Centennial of Flight marked a success, the year...

Image Left: Patti LaBelle performs "Way Up There" at the Columbia memorial service at the National Cathedral in Washington.Photo Credit: NASA/Renee Bouchard R & B legend Patti LaBelle has been nominated for a Grammy Award for "Way Up There," the stirring anthem she performed to honor the seven fallen heroes of the Space Shuttle Columbia. The song, written by LaBelle's long time collaborator Tena R. Clark, was originally commissioned by the NASA Art Program to celebrate the Centennial of Flight in 2003. But it took on a powerful new meaning for the NASA family when LaBelle performed it at the...

Workers at Kennedy Space Center are packing up the 84,000 pieces of the space shuttle Columbia for storage. But unlike debris from the Challenger, some remnants will be available to researchers and perhaps someday put on display in a museum. "The overall goal ... was to make Columbia available to do further science and research, not only by the shuttle community but other contractors, universities and scientists," said Scott Thurston, who was the vehicle manager for Columbia. NASA (news - web sites) hasn't decided whether any pieces of the shuttle will ultimately be given to the Smithsonian National Air and...

NASA recently posted a series of emails sent to officials of the NASA Headquarters Office of Safety and Mission Assurance in response to a Freedom of Information Act Request. Among the emails released are several which make mention of a closed, members-only website called "107 Team". This closed site was designed, according to an invitation email message (below) sent only hours after the accident from Dr. J Steven Newman to John Lemke, as "our group's private website. We can use it to share group documents, schedule events, hold online discussions, and more." Membership in the 107 Team intranet is by...

WASHINGTON — A flawed NASA culture is to blame for the Columbia shuttle disaster, according to a detailed, 200-plus-page report released Tuesday. Earlier Tuesday, NASA (search) leaders were bracing for a storm of criticism. "The report is going to be embarrassing," physics professor Robert Park of the University of Maryland told Fox News. Space shuttle Columbia broke into pieces on Feb. 1 upon return into the atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard. Members of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (search) completed the report late last week after spending seven months probing the technical facts of the space tragedy and interviewing...

Seeing the thing that brought down the space shuttle Columbia filled Jon Salton with sadness. His sister, Laurel Clark, was one of the seven astronauts who died when the shuttle shattered on its return to Earth more than six months ago. He viewed the video of the impact test in July that showed a chunk of foam insulation knocking a giant hole in shuttle wing parts. "It's hard to watch that," he said. "It's utterly obvious now that type of impact could cause an orbiter to break apart. "It didn't make me angry. It just made me sad." NASA officials...

Cleaning up the remains of space shuttle Columbia and investigating why it fell out of the sky will cost taxpayers more than $380 million, according to figures from the government agencies involved. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, the lead agency dealing with the Feb. 1 disaster that killed seven astronauts, expects to spend more than $228 million on the accident, said Kim Pease, a Denton-based spokesman for the agency. FEMA, which now is part of the Homeland Security Department, coordinated the search and recovery operation, working with NASA, the U.S. Forest Service, the Environmental Protection Agency and the departments of...

Seven asteroids circling the sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter are being named for the astronauts who died in the space shuttle Columbia accident, officials announced Wednesday. Astronauts Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown and Laurel Clark of NASA (news - web sites) and Ilan Ramon of Israel died on Feb. 1 when Columbia broke up while returning to Earth from a 16-day orbital mission. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. proposed naming the asteroids for the astronauts. The plan was approved by the International Astronomical Union and announced on Wednesday by the...