The crew performed experiments such as pollinating plants to observe food growth in space and tests for making stronger metals and faster computer chips - all for a price tag of about 56 million dollars.
On the Saturday night when the news about the Columbia disaster broke there was shock and disbelief. The town of Karnal spent a sleepless night as thousands of households stayed glued to there television sets in the hope that kalpana and the crew had somehow survived A journalist wrote
she was a heroine .It takes enormous ability to become an astronaut. You need to know a lot about everything, from biology to astrophysics to aeronautical engineering In this age of super - specialisation, you must have encyclopaedic knowledge to be an astronaut. Her achievement is awe - inspiring