Video: Remembering astronaut and UTA trailblazer Kalpana Chawla
20 years after explosion of space shuttle Columbia, UTA continues to honor Maverick astronaut
On Feb. 1, 2003, Kalpana Chawla died high in the skies above Texas, when the space shuttle Columbia broke apart during re-entry after 16 days in orbit, killing her and six fellow astronauts.
Chawla, the first Indian American woman to fly in space, earned her master’s degree in aerospace engineering from The University of Texas at Arlington in 1984. The University continues to honor her legacy with an on-campus memorial and both a residence hall and a scholarship for graduate students studying aerospace engineering that bear her name.