Chandigarh, July 27 (IANS) Karnal town in Haryana, from where Indian-origin astronaut Kalpana Chawla hailed, will soon have a medical college in her memory.
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda Tuesday announced that the Kalpana Chawla Medical College would be set up in the existing complex of the civil hospital in Karnal.
He made the announcement after a meeting of the medical college project here Tuesday. He asked officials of the concerned departments to expedite the project.
Kalpana Chawla, who was born and had studied at the Tagore Public School in Karnal town, 120 km from here, became the first woman of Indian origin to go into space on NASA’s re-useable spacecraft Columbia in 1997.
The space scientist, who did her engineering degree in aeronautical engineering from Chandigarh’s Punjab Engineering College (PEC), was chosen by NASA for her second space mission in January 2003.
It was during the return journey, once again in spacecraft Columbia, that the shuttle disintegrated while re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere Feb 1, 2003. All seven astronauts on the flight perished in the disaster.
