Chawla, Kalpana (1961-2003)

US astronaut. She was the principal operator of the robot arm on the space shuttle mission launched in November 1997 to carry out microgravity experiments. From 1988, Chawla worked for NASA's Ames Research Center for research into fluid dynamics before her selection as an astronaut in 1995. She died when the space shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry in February 2003 after a 16-day mission to the International Space Station.