She went into space and is now lost forever. kamasutra contoured condoms. ventolin. but really, is she gone ? 

For Kalpana Chawla, if she were to ever contemplate Death, probably this might the only way she would choose to depart! Doing a job that she loved....

We, at Gurgaonharyana.com salute her spirit of quest and commitment to space research...

We did this feature after her first space sojourn, when all of Haryana and India were applauding her efforts...

When she was at school in Tagore School, Karnal, nobody, not even her parents probably imagined what she was destined for! After all, not many people from Karnal have attained the heights that were destined to be hers! 

She went on to do Aeronautical Engineering from Punjab Engineering College in 1982. Later she flew to the Land of Dreams - America - where she did her Masters's in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas in 1984, followed by a Doctorate from the University of Colorado, 1988.

In 1988, Kalpana started work at NASA Research Center in the area of powered-lift computational fluid dynamics.

In 1993 she joined Overset Methods Inc., Los Altos, California, as Vice President and Research Scientist and specialised in simulation of moving multiple body problems.

Selected by NASA in December 1994, Kalpana Chawla reported to the Johnson Space Center as an astronaut candidate in the 15th Group of Astronauts.

In November, 1996, she was assigned as mission specialist and prime robotic arm operator on STS-87. STS-87 was the fourth U.S Microgravity Payload flight and focused on experiments designed to study how the weightless environment of space affects various physical processes and on observations of the Sun's outer atmospheric layers.

In her first mission, she traveled 6.5 million miles in 252 orbits of the Earth and logged 376 hours and 34 min in space. She is currently assigned to the crew of STS-107 scheduled for a launch.

Haryana is proud of Kalpana Chawla. And of course, we wish her good luck for all her flights of fancy!