The Association of Indians in America (AIA) joined the nation in its grief on the sad incident of the disintegration of the Shuttle Columbia in Space on Saturday, February first. AIA expressed its deepest sympathies and offered condolences to the families of Kalpana Chawla, Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Laurel Clark, and Ilan Ramon - the brightest and the bravest who made the ultimate sacrifice to serve the mankind.

We saluted them all for their courage and sacrifice on February 4th during a memorial service held at the Johnson Space Center in Houston presided by President & Mrs. Bush. At the invitation of the White House, AIA President Piyush & Mrs. Sudha Agrawal, Indian Ambassador to USA Lalit Mansingh, Consul General & Mrs. Skand Tayal, Deputy Consul General Mr. R.L.Koli, Houston Community leader Dr. Durga Agrawal and Minnesota Hindu Priest Prof Rambachan attended the Houston service.

"Mrs. Chawla was known among the AIA circles as a very charming and unassuming person," said Dr. Piyush C. Agrawal, National President of AIA. He further noted that he was very impressed by Kalpana Ji's friendly nature when he met her during the Asian American Heritage Month last May at the White House. "She represented a rare combination of accomplishment and modesty."

Modesty was one of the qualities everyone remembers about Kalpana, affectionately called KC by her fellow astronauts. Her colleagues always remembered that she did not have the brashness most astronauts possessed. According to Gopal Khanna, AIAs Vice President, Ms. Chawla truly represented the spirit of AIAs motto: "Indian Heritage and American Commitment."

Born and raised in the town of Karnal, Haryana, India, Kalpana Chawla's love for stars and for flying led to her career as a NASA astronaut. She earned a B.S. in aeronautical engineering from Punjab Engineering College in 1982. Moving to the U.S., she turned to aerospace engineering and received her M.S. from the University of Texas and her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado. Chawla joined NASA in 1995 and was assigned as mission specialist on the space shuttle STS-87 in 1997, becoming the first Indian-American woman to go into space. In completing her first mission, Kalpana Chawla traveled 6.5 million miles in 252 orbits of the Earth and logged 376 hours and 34 minutes in space. Speaking about Kalpana, President Bush said, "She always wanted to reach the stars. She went there, and beyond." Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee also expressed his condolences to the Chawla family and the families of the astronauts who lost their lives alongside her on February 1, 2003.

The AIA family will sorely miss her.