Astronaut Kalpana Chawla - Chawla Hill, Columbia Hills - Mars - Houston, TX USA
N 29° 45.701 W 095° 22.083
15R E 271030 N 3294727
A hill on the planet Mars is named for Kalpana Chawla, who died over the skies of North Texas when the Space Shuttle Challenger (STS-107) exploded on 01 Feb 2003
Waymark Code: WMY354
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 04/11/2018
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This memorial in Houston's Tranquility Park is one of two dedicated to NASA astronauts who died in the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster and the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.
Dr. Kalpana Chawla was the first Indian woman in space, and a graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington. She flew on two space shuttle missions on Space Shuttle Columbia: Mission STS-87 in 1997, and Mission STS-107 in 2003. A heat-shield failure during re-entry caused Columbia to explode and disintegrate over Texas on 01 Feb 2003.
From Wikipedia: (
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"Kalpana Chawla (March 17, 1962 – February 1, 2003) was an Indian-born American astronaut and the first woman of Indian origin in space. She first flew on Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997 as a mission specialist and primary robotic arm operator. In 2003, Chawla was one of the seven crew members who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster when the craft disintegrated during its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. Chawla was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, and several streets, universities, and institutions have been named in her honor. . .
Chawla died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster which occurred on February 1, 2003; she was killed, along with the other six crew members, when the Columbia disintegrated over Texas during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, shortly before it was scheduled to conclude its 28th mission, STS-107.
Chawla's remains were identified along with the rest of the crew members and were cremated and scattered at National Park in Utah in accordance with her wishes. . . .
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The NASA Mars Exploration Rover mission has named seven peaks in a chain of hills, named the Columbia Hills, after each of the seven astronauts lost in the Columbia shuttle disaster. One of them is Chawla Hill, named after Chawla."