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                   hen you think of NASA’s space shut-             members, one of them was Kalpana Chawla, who was
                   tle program, what comes to your mind            the first Indian-born woman in space. This tragic loss
                   first? Space. The Universe and its dark         reminded us of the disastrous event when the Space
         W mystery. Aliens, Blackhole, Dark Matter                 Shuttle Challenger exploded, which broke apart and
         and ubiquitous Rocket Science; they are inscrutable,      killed the seven-member crew 73 seconds after the
         cryptic and deadpan! You might imagine of astro-          immediate liftoff in 1986.
         nauts, floating in the air inside the spaceship; they       However, an understanding and sympathy
         spin in micro-gravity. Well, the incidents of disas-      between  you and NASA have developed in the
         ter might come to your mind: Kalpana Chawla; The          meantime; it seems quite convincing to us, until
         Columbia disaster. The Challenger explosion. Sky-         now that what NASA has been doing, they are
         lab crash in 1979. On February 1, 2003, the Space         doing it for the good of mankind. They do a few
         Shuttle Columbia exploded upon reentering Earth’s         commendable jobs. But,  you may have never
         atmosphere and exploded, killing all seven crew           believed of associating NASA with spying, helping



                                        tehelka / 31 january 2019  14  www.tehelka.com
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