On her birth anniversary, let’s remember Kalpana Chawla and her space mission at NASA.

As we all know, Indian born American astronaut Kalpana Chawla was killed in the Columbia space shuttle disaster on February 1, 2003. The Columbia space shuttle met with a fatal accident, and Kalpana, along with the crew including Rick Husband, William C. McCool, Michael P. Anderson, David M. Brown, Laurel Clark, and Ilan Ramon, were killed on the mission. It was Chawla’s second mission to space.

Nonetheless, on her birth anniversary, here are some things we all need to know about her:

Kalpana Chawla was born in Karnal, Haryana on March 17, 1962. After wrapping up school years from Tagore Baal Niketan Senior Secondary School in Karnal, she took a Bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering from Punjab Engineering College. Finally, in 1984, she earned herself a Master degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington. Kalpana Chawla also had a PhD in aerospace engineering.

Coming to her space missions, her first space mission was in 1997 on November 19. She, along with a six-astronaut crew, took a flight with the Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87.

With her first space mission, she became the first Indian origin woman to go to space. When she did embark on her journey, she not just fulfilled her childhood dream, but also broke a record and set a milestone. With her example, several young girls in the country saw a new dream. When she was traveling in space in her first mission, she said "You are just your intelligence,” and with the mission, she completed 252 orbits of the earth in 15 days and 16 hours.

Kalpana Chawla went for the second space mission in 2003 with six other astronauts went onboard on the STS-107 Space Shuttle Columbia. However, when the Columbia was re-entering the earth's atmosphere, it disintegrated, killing all the crews.

On the personal front, she was married to Jean-Pierre Harrison and they tied the knot in 1983.