Northrop Grumman, an American global aerospace and defence technology company, announced that its next Cygnus capsule will be named the “S.S. Kalpana Chawla”.
In November 1996, Chawla was assigned as a mission specialist on STS-87 aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia.
This makes her the first Indian born woman to fly in space.
Her second spaceflight experience came in 2001 when she was selected for the crew of STS-107.
She lost her life in 2003 when the Space Shuttle Columbia explosion while re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere.