University of Colorado Relives Shuttle Tragedy

BOULDER, Colo.

As the University of Colorado at Boulder mourned the death of graduate Dr. Kalpana Chawla on the space shuttle Columbia earlier this month, the university community could not help but remember another esteemed alumnus, Ellison Onizuka, who died in the Challenger explosion in January 1986.

"It's difficult to express the sense of sadness and disbelief we all feel today for the loss of Dr. Chawla, one of our distinguished astronaut-alumni of the aerospace engineering program. Along with Ellison Onizuka, who died on the Challenger in 1986, CU-Boulder now has lost two of its shining stars to shuttle disasters," said Dr. Phil DiStefano, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, in a statement.

Chawla, 41, was born in Karnal, India, and received an aeronautical engineering degree from Punjab Engineering College in 1982. Chawla immigrated to the United States in the 1980s, earning a master's from the University of Texas in 1984 and a doctorate from CU-Boulder in 1988. She became an astronaut in 1994 and logged 376 hours in space during her first shuttle flight in 1997.

Chawla also held a flight instructor's license with airplane and glider ratings. In her spare time, she flew aerobatics airplanes.

C.Y. Chow, professor emeritus of aerospace engineering at CU, says Chawla was a brilliant and prolific student. Chow worked with Chawla on her thesis.

"She was very active outside the classroom, always in the sky," he says. "She balanced hard work and research with her interest in flying."

On the Columbia, Chawla was involved in experiments on plant growth and crystal structure, and two Colorado projects. One project from CU studied the strength and stiffness of wet sand that was compressed between metal plates, in the hopes of eventually building habitats in space. The other was a Colorado School of Mines project on fire suppression that used water mist to quench flames.