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India Renames Satellite in Memory of Columbia Astronaut
By K.S. Jayaraman
Space News Correspondent
posted: 03:15 pm ET
06 February 2003
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india_mourns_030206 NEW DELHI Metsat, the weather satellite India launched in 2002 has been renamed Kalpana-1 in memory of India-born Kalpana Chawla, one of the seven astronauts who died in the Columbia tragedy Feb. 1 which will now become an annual day of official observance in India. Indias Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said at an all party condolence meeting in Parliament that Chawla had fired the imagination of an entire generation of youth, especially girls. He said Feb. 1 would be observed each year by India to remember the space heroes. The union cabinet also adopted a resolution, which said that Chawlas mission "has heightened the self confidence of Indian women and served as a source of inspiration for our children, students, and youth." Political leaders announced that Chawlas biography is to be published and included in school syllabus so that her life can inspire successive generations. Chawlas home state Chandigarh that had declared a two-day state mourning announced a Kalpana Chawla Medal for the most outstanding girl student of class ten. Punjab also instituted an annual award to a student topping in aeronautical sciences at Punjab engineering college. The Indian Medical Association announced that a medical college would be set up in her memory. Chawlas death also brought out the poet in Robert Blackwill, the U.S. ambassador to India. In "ode to Kalpana," widely published by newspapers Blackwill wrote: Like Seneca she thought, "the whole universe is my native land.' Now more than ever, dear one, we weep."
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