Kalpana Chawla
Kalpana Chawla was born in Karnal, India, and moved to the US for graduate school, earning a PhD in aerospace engineering before joining NASA in 1994. In 1997, she became the first woman of Indian origin to reach orbit. She tragically died at age forty when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry over Texas on February 1, 2003. Following her death, India named a satellite in her honor.
Sunita Williams
Sunita Williams was born in Ohio to a Gujarati immigrant father and a Slovenian mother. She graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and worked as a test pilot before NASA selected her in 1998. During her 2006 International Space Station mission, she set a record for the most spacewalk time by a woman. In 2024, she returned to the ISS aboard Boeing’s Starliner for an extended nine-month mission, and returned in 2025.
Nupur Lala
Nupur Lala was raised in Tampa, Florida, by Telugu immigrant parents. In 1999, she won the Scripps National Spelling Bee by correctly spelling the word “logorrhea”. Her victory gained widespread attention because filmmaker Jeff Blitz documented her experience for the 2002 Oscar-nominated film Spellbound. The documentary introduced millions of Americans to the pressures and dynamics of a first-generation Indian American family. After her spelling bee success, Lala pursued a career in science.
Sirisha Bandla
Sirisha Bandla was born in Andhra Pradesh, India, and raised partly in Houston, Texas. She studied aeronautical engineering at Purdue University and built a career in commercial spaceflight, eventually serving as Vice President of Government Affairs at Virgin Galactic. On July 11, 2021, she flew on Richard Branson’s inaugural crewed spaceflight aboard VSS Unity. This flight made her the third woman of Indian origin to reach space.