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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
