An American commercial cargo spacecraft is named after Indian astronaut Kalpana Chawla. The company said, “We have decided to name our next Cygnus capsule as ‘SS Kalpana Chawla’ to honor NASA’s first Indian-origin woman Astronaut Kalpana Chawla. She sacrificed her life for the Columbia Space Mission in 2001.Her work in the field of human space flight will be remembered for a long time.”
The company wrote on its website -”Every time Northrop Grumman names its spacecraft to people who have done a fantastic job in the field of space. We feel proud to name our spacecraft after Kalpana Chawla.”
PTI quoted the agency as saying – “Today we are honoring Kalpana Chawla, who made history at NASA as the first female astronaut of Indian origin. Her contribution to manned spacecraft will have long-term impact. The company said on its website, ‘Northrop Grahman is proud to name the NG-14 Cygnus spacecraft after former astronaut Kalpana Chawla.”
”It is the tradition of the company that it names each Cygnus after the person who has played an important role in manned spacecraft. Kalpana Chawla was an Indian-American astronaut and space shuttle mission specialist. She was the second Indian and the first Indian woman to go into space. Kalpana was one of the seven astronaut crew members killed in the ‘Columbia spacecraft disaster’ ” it added.
Kalpana’s first space flight STS 87 The Colombian shuttle was completed between 19 November 1997 and 5 December 1997. Their second and last flight began on 16 January 2003 with the Space Shuttle Colombia, but unfortunately on 1 February 2003, the Colombia Space Shuttle suffered an accident before landing on Earth, killing all 6 passengers of the spacecraft, including Kalpana Chawla.
