SUNITA WILLIAMS

Sunita Williams is clearly the biggest role model for those of you who want to become an astronaut when you grow up. She is the first woman of Indian origin to successfully return from space. (Before her, Kalpana Chawla died tragically when the space shuttle Columbia blew up in 2003.) But fortune favoured Williams who returned from space safely after setting the record for the longest spacewalk ever by a woman (29 hours, 17 minutes).

Sunita, 41, wanted to become a vet as a child. Always fond of animals, her first dog was a collie named Lassie. It was during one of her field trips after her graduation from the United States Naval Test Pilot School that the space bug first hit her. Listening to a veteran astronaut at the Johnson Space Centre talking about a moonlanding, she realised, “the only one who’s telling me I’m not going to be an astronaut is me”.
Well, she did go on to become a NASA astronaut, making her maiden venture into space in December last year on board the space shuttle Discovery. After spending six months at the International Space Station, she blasted back to earth on June 22, 2007.

KALPANA CHAWLA

Born in Karnal, Haryana, in March 7, 1962, Kalpana Chawla was inspired by J.R.D. Tata, a pioneering Indian pilot and industrialist. Chawla went on to train as an aerospace engineer and a certified flight instructor in the US. In 2003, she became the first Indian-born woman in space when NASA selected her as a crew member aboard the space shuttle Columbia. However, she died tragically when the shuttle exploded while trying to re-enter the Earth 16 minutes before the scheduled landing.

RAKESH SHARMA

The first Indian in space, Wing commander Rakesh Sharma, spent eight days in space aboard the Russian space station Salyut 7. Born on January 13, 1949 in Patiala, Punjab, Sharma joined the Indian Air Force and embarked on the historic mission on April 2, 1984 as part of a joint space programme between Indian Space Research Organisation and the Soviet Intercosmos space programme. When the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi asked him how India looked from space, he replied: “Saare Jahan Se Achcha.