The astronaut and the pioneer

Kalpana Chawla is a national hero in India, and one of the most celebrated women of our times. The first woman of Indian origin to go into space, she first flew on Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997 as a technical specialist and robot arm operator. An asteroid has been named after her, and also a satellite. NASA has dedicated a supercomputer to her memory, and she has been an inspiration to millions of young Indian boys and girls, who wish to achieve big and meaningful things in their own lives.

Kalpana Chawla lost her life, at the young age of 40 years, in the disaster of the Space Shuttle Columbia, in 2003. The spacecraft she was travelling in disintegrated during its re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, and all seven crew members unfortunately perished. That was a sad day. India, and the world, mourned and cried.

Some time after her demise, Kalpana Chawla’s family wrote to the Chairman of the Tata Group, Ratan Tata. This was a unique letter, because it enclosed some special memorabilia. There was a crew autographed group picture of the Space Shuttle Mission STS-87, (her first Space Shuttle Mission), a pair of medallions commemorating her two space journeys, and an old black and white photograph. This was the photograph of JRD Tata’s inaugural mail flight, which Kalpana Chawla had carried along with her, on her first mission into space.

Here was a heartfelt tribute from a young girl to her hero. To a man who had inspired her to travel all the way from a small town in Punjab, into the far reaches of outer space. Her own, personal tribute to JRD Tata. Imagine this for a moment. This young girl had carried into space, on her very first mission, an old sepia photograph of a man whose pioneering deeds had sparked her own ambitions. Yes, she was telling us, we need such pioneers to inspire us, in our own lives. Such legends light a fire in our minds and our hearts, and make us aim for the stars themselves. 

Kalpana Chawla had always admired JRD. Just before her second trip into space, she had told reporters that her inspiration had always been JRD Tata. She said - “What JRD Tata had done during those years was very intriguing and definitely captivated my imagination.”

Let us rewind for a moment to 1982, the year in which Kalpana Chawla left India to the USA, undoubtedly with great hopes in her mind, to pursue her Master’s studies in Aerospace Engineering. In that very year, JRD Tata did something special. He piloted the flight commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of India’s very first commercial flight, which he had himself flown in 1932, from Karachi to Mumbai. In 1932, that inaugural mail flight had launched India’s civil aviation industry. But at that time, JRD was a strapping, young man. Now, in 1982, JRD Tata was 78 years of age. And yet he was determined to go ahead, and pilot the fiftieth year commemorative flight himself, on a Leopard Moth aircraft similar to the one used in the original flight.

Faced with a reluctant Board of Directors who were unwilling to let him fly solo at this advanced age, he wrote to them firmly enough – “I have recently got myself fully checked up medically, including hearing and eyesight, and have been declared fit in every way…”. Three weeks before the date of the flight, JRD suffered a minor heart attack, but recovered quickly. Seeing his steely determination, his consulting physician and cardiologist decided to permit him to fly, because the emotional strain of abandoning his cherished dream could have been even greater than the physical strain of flying.

On 15th October, 1982, JRD Tata, 78 years young, took to the skies and flew once again from Karachi to Mumbai, to recreate that pioneering first flight of fifty years ago. All the way from Pakistan to India, flew JRD, now patriarch, always a pioneer, a man who had done his best for his nation throughout his lifetime. His small Leopard Moth aeroplane was accompanied by a Tata Steel Bonanza aircraft until Ahmedabad, but on the last leg, from Ahmedabad to Mumbai, he flew all alone. As he neared Mumbai, two Air Force helicopters escorted the little plane for a small distance, their salute to the grand old man, and then they departed. JRD Tata landed at the Juhu aerodrome in Mumbai at 4pm. sharp, after having circled in the air for a few minutes to avoid landing early. There he was, as punctual as ever.

JRD Tata spoke briefly to the gathering, after landing the aircraft. “This flight of mine today”, he said, “was intended to inspire a little hope and enthusiasm in the younger people of our country, that despite all the difficulties, all the frustrations, there is a joy in having done something as well as you could, and better than others thought you could.”

One of those young people, in whom he inspired such hope and enthusiasm, was Kalpana Chawla. She flew into space, and made us all so proud, sparking off the dreams of millions of young Indians. 

The treasured photographs that Kalpana Chawla’s family sent to Ratan Tata are now displayed in the Tata Archives in Pune, just outside the beautifully re-created office of JRD Tata, which is a highlight at these Archives. This was done in line with her family’s request, so that this unique tribute to the man who inspired her, rests just outside his door. 

Both Kalpana Chawla and JRD Tata, the astronaut and the pioneer, are no more with us. But their legendary achievements and deeds provide us strength forever. What will Kalpana and JRD inspire each of us to do, today and tomorrow ? How will we strive to achieve our own dreams, for our own fulfilment, and for the greater good of our nation and humanity ?