Kalpana Chawla said that she never dreamed as a child in Karnal that she would cross the frontiers of space. it was enough that her parents allowed her to attend engineering college after she graduated from tagore school. after a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering against great opportunity from her father she went for a master's degree to the United States of America . she later earned her ph.D. in aerospace engineering. Kalpana Chawla was the first Indian-American woman astronaut to blast off from the launch pad at Cape Canaveral Florida and participate in a successful mission in space . her family from india cheered along with staff at the Kennedy space center as they watched the Columbia lift off.