Kalpana Chawla prepares to be first Indian woman to be launched into space

Countdown to history: Chawla (left) undergoes final checks before lift-offBig things usually have small beginnings. Orbiting the earth is a big thing, being born in a small earthy town in north India may not be. Come November 19 and Kalpana Chawla, dressed in an orange space suit, will be strapped into her seat on board the US space shuttle Columbia. She will wait for about two-and-a-half hours, her heart pounding, till lift-off time approaches.Blast off, and she will suddenly experience a crushing pressure pinning her down this is gravity's massive downward pull. The Columbia zooms into the firmament at an astonishing speed, then the pressure is just as suddenly released as the spacecraft escapes the gravitational force. It's eight-and-a-half minutes and Chawla is in space and the notion of bigness and smallness ceases to have meaning.What will not is that at that precise moment Chawla will become the first Indian woman in space. She wanted to be the first Indian Rakesh Sharma beat her to it in 1984 aboard a Russian space-craft but that will not detract from her moment of glory. The implications of her achievement probably will not cross her mind that day. Only one thing counts then: the mission.Testing times: chawla does a series of simulated flights for the tough ride aheadIt is the mission that she has trained for ever since she crayoned her first aircraft in her primary school drawing book in a classroom in Haryana. Chawla is the only woman among the four Americans, a Japanese and a Ukrainian in the crew of the Columbia as it undertakes its 24th flight into space. Once in space, and free of earth's gravity, Chawla will take off the special launch apparel and don her white on-orbit flight suit and float down to the science laboratory in the cargo bay.The 35-year-old Chawla will play an important role in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Mission STS-87, and will concentrate on conducting critical experiments during her 15-day space odyssey.She was especially chosen for the flight because of her expertise in gravitational studies and will, as a mission specialist, carry out complex experiments to ascertain the impact of weightlessness on several industrial materials. For instance, one of STS-87's aims will be to find out how metals solidify in zero-gravity conditions; this may help to produce stronger steel on earth. "My knowledge of computer systems would be a big help," she says. Chawla and her fellow astronauts will be involved in other missions too, which include measuring the levels of ozone in the atmosphere and launching a Spartan science satellite that will study the sun.Her 15-day odyssey in orbit will call for enormous skill and endurance.For 15 days, 16 hours and 33 minutes, until the Columbia touches down at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral on December 5, Chawla will live in the confines of the first-ever shuttle (Columbia also prosaically called OV-102 for Orbiter Vehicle 102-first flew into earth orbit in 1981.) It will not be easy, for the lack of gravitational pull makes even simple things like eating and walking a test of physics. But she has been trained well; she spent a year in training at the Johnson Space Center, Houston. During mission training she was taken up in KC 135, a special aircraft, in which she experienced weightlessness for 30 secs at a time.In any case, hardship will not bother Chawla. "I've always been very determined. I don't get easily discouraged," she says. It will be restrictive inside, her time, in ironical contrast to the timeless bounds outside the shuttle, counted in minutes. From the time she manoeuvres herself into her sleeping bag till she sits down to her "ther-mostabilised, rehydratable, irradiated, intermediate-moisture" meal (2,700 calories over three meals daily) only vegetables, for she is a strict vegetarian she will follow a routine that has been specially devised to enable the crew to get enough time for work and rest. A major discomfort: Chawla and her fellow astronauts will have to make do with sponge baths in space, for which each person gets two washcloths and a towel a day, plus a toilet kit.MISSION PROFILE Scheduled for November 19, the lift-off aboard Columbia, the US space shuttle, will be the 88th in the programme and has six crew members, including Chawla.The mission in space is expected to last 15 days, 16 hours and 33 minutes.Chawla, 35,was chosen for the job by NASA from 2,962 applicants from all over the world in 1994.A doctorate in aerospace engineering, she will serve as a mission specialist on the flight and concentrate on conducting experiments to test the effects of gravity on industrial materials.On board, wearing a white orbit suit, Chawla would like the other crew members have a 16-hour wake period and eighthours of sleep every day. The crew is allocated 45 minutes when they wake up to wash and get ready.In addition to scientific activities, Chawla will, like the others, do housekeeping chores throughout the day. These include cleaning the waste management compartment, the dining area and equipment, the cabin air filters and trash collection and disposal, using biocidal cleansers, disposable gloves and a vacuum cleaner. The intriguing matter of disposing human waste involves a wet trash container made of airtight fabric which is attached to the commode. When the container is full, it is removed and stowed in a modular locker.Life thus will certainly be very unusual for Chawla on board the Columbia. But then she has always sought out the unusual in life. Against the wishes of a first-generation educated family, she chose to leave her home in Karnal after school to study aeronautical engineering at the Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh. Then to the chagrin of her businessman father and conservative mother, she insisted that she would go to the US for higher education. She earned her master's degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas in 1984 and then her PhD in the same subject from the University of Colorado in 1988. In 1984, she married Jean Pierre Harrison, an American flying instructor.She was among the 2,962 applicants for one of the six civilian mission specialist positions. The NASA call came through in December 1994. That was the first step of her dream journey. But even in her excitement, she has not lost sight of the bigger purpose of life. "You must enjoy the journey because whether or not you get there, you must have fun on the way," she says. And Kalpana Chawla, astronaut, should know what she is talking about.-with Joel RaiPublished By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 17, 1997 00:00 IST--- ENDS ---

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Kalpana Chawla prepares to be first Indian woman to be launched into space

Excitement builds as a Karnal scientist prepares to be the first Indian woman to be launched into space.

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