Today in Technology History

An event that occurred on this date in the history of technology.

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July 1

Kalpana Chawla, one of the astronauts killed in the Columbia disaster in February, would have turned 42 years old today.

Chawla was born on July 1, 1961 in the town of Karnal in East India. That last fact -- the location of her birth -- matters a great deal: In India, women were barely starting to move into the workplace at that time, and still today more than a third of India's women are illiterate. She was fortunate enough to be born into a wealthy family, but even her family's support had its limits: although her father was proud of her, he refused to back her decision to study aerospace engineering, thinking it unladylike. (He wanted her to be a doctor or a teacher instead.)

In 1982, she graduated from an Indian college with a degree in aeronautical engineering (the only woman in her program). She then moved to the U.S., studying at American universities to eventually get a Ph.D. in her "unladylike" discipline. Having specialized in fluid dynamics in graduate school, she continued that research for NASA starting in 1988, then spent one year as vice president of a California research firm before being selected by NASA in 1994 to become an astronaut.

For the next few years, Dr. Chawla concentrated on computer interfaces and robotics for NASA -- and on her first space mission, in 1997, she was the shuttle's prime robotic arm operator. On that mission, she became the first Indian-born person to enter space (although she was by then a U.S. citizen).

The final flight of Columbia was the second mission for "K.C.," as she was known around NASA. An accomplished pilot and flight instructor on Earth, it was her job in space to help maneuver the shuttle for certain experiments. She also otherwise contributed to more than a dozen of the scientific experiments aboard Columbia.

Chawla is survived by her husband, whom she met on their first day of grad school and married in 1984.

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