Space probe

A space probe is a scientific space exploration mission in which a robotic spacecraft leaves the gravity well of Earth and approaches the Moon or enters interplanetary or interstellar space;
approximately twenty are currently extant. The space agencies of the USSR (now Russia and Ukraine), the United States, the European Union, Japan and China have in the aggregate launched probes to several planets and moons of the solar system as well as to a number of asteroids and comets.

Live Earth

secret images of google earth
The Secret - Planet Earth

NASA career

Chawla joined the NASA astronaut corps in March 1995 and was selected for her first flight in 1998 Her first space mission began on November 19, 1997 as part of the six astronaut crew that flew the Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87. Chawla was the first Indian-born woman and the second person of Indian origin to fly in space, following cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma who flew in 1984 in a Soviet spacecraft. It must be noted that while Rakesh Sharma represented India, Chawla was an American astronaut who represented the United States. Sharma and Chawla never met despite their common interests. On her first mission Chawla traveled over 10.4 million miles in 252 orbits of the earth, logging more than 360 hours in space. During STS-87, she was responsible for deploying the Spartan Satellite which malfunctioned, necessitating a spacewalk by Winston Scott and Takao Doi to capture the satellite. A five-month NASA investigation fully exonerated Chawla by identifying errors in software interfaces and the defined procedures of flight crew and ground control.

After the completion of STS-87 post-flight activities, Chawla was assigned to technical positions in the astronaut office, her performance in which was recognized with a special award from her peers.

In 2000 she was selected for her second flight as part of the crew of STS-107. This mission was repeatedly delayed due to scheduling conflicts and technical problems such as the July 2002 discovery of cracks in the shuttle engine flow liners. On January 16, 2003 Chawla finally returned to space aboard Columbia on the ill-fated STS-107 mission. Chawla's responsibilities included the SPACEHAB/FREESTAR microgravity experiments, for which the crew conducted nearly 80 experiments studying earth and space science, advanced technology development, and astronaut health and safety.

Chawla's last visit to India was during the 1991 - 1992 new year holiday when she and her husband spent time with her family. For various reasons, Chawla was never able to follow up on invitations to visit India after she became an astronaut.

Kalpana Chawla

Kalpana Chawla

(Hindi: कल्‍पना चावला) (1 July 1961 – 1 February2003), was an Indian-American astronaut and space shuttle mission specialist. She was one of seven crewmembers killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

Education

Kalpana Chawla studied at Tagore Public School, Karnal for her earlier schooling and she pursued further studies aeronautical engineering at Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh, India, in 1982 where she earned her Bachelor of Science degree. She was one of the three women in the college at the time. She moved to the United States in 1982 and obtained a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington (1984). Chawla earned a second Master of Science degree in 1986 and a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering in 1988 from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Later that year she began working for NASA Ames Research Center as vice president of Overset Methods, Inc. where she did CFD research on V/STOL.^[2] Chawla held a Certificated Flight Instructor rating for airplanes, gliders and Commercial Pilot licenses for single and multiengine airplanes, seaplanes and gliders. She held an FCC issued Technician Class Amateur Radio license with the call sign KD5ESI. She met and married Jean-Pierre Harrison, a flying instructor and aviation writer, in 1983 and became a naturalized United States citizen in 1990

Failed missions

CONTOUR, a mission to visit and study comets Encke and Schwassmann-Wachmann-3. It was launched from Cape Canaveral on July 3, 2002. On August 15, contact with the craft was lost. Subsequent investigation revealed that it broke into at least three pieces, the cause likely being structural failure during the rocket motor burn that was to push it from Earth orbit into a solar orbit.

Successfully completed missions

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• NEAR Shoemaker, a mission to study asteroid 433 Eros. It has succeeded its primary and extended mission and is now defunct, having successfully landed on surface of Eros.
• Mars Pathfinder, a Mars lander to deploy a miniature rover on the surface. It has completed its primary and extended mission and is now defunct.
• Lunar Prospector, a Moon orbiter to characterize the lunar mineralogy. It has completed its primary and extended mission and deliberately impacted onto the Moon's surface.
• Deep Impact, a mission in which a spacecraft released an impactor into the path of comet Tempel 1. After the successful completion of its mission, it was put in hibernation, and then reactived for an extended mission designated EPOXI.
• Stardust, a mission to a collect samples from the tail of comet 81P/Wild. It has successfully collected its samples, and returned those samples to Earth on January 15, 2006. The spacecraft has been put into hibernation and remains in orbit around the Sun. It is still functional and is being used for the NExT extended mission.

Discovery Program

NASA's
Discovery Program is a series of lower-cost, highly focused scientific space missions. It was founded to implement NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin's vision of "faster, better, cheaper" planetary missions. Discovery missions differ from traditional NASA mission where targets and objectives are pre-specified, instead, these missions are proposed by any organization while costs are capped. Proposing organizations may be teams of people in the industry, small businesses, government laboratories, and universities, and led by a Principal Investigator (PI). Proposals are then selected through a competitive peer review process. Development time of missions from start to launch cannot be longer than 36 months. Currently, for the 2006 Announcement of Opportunity, the cost is capped at $425 million