My Eulogy for Kalpana Chawla (from 2003)

Kalpana Chawla, one of the astronauts who died on the Space Shuttle Columbia was my colleague and friend. For several years she had the office literally next door to me at NASA Ames Research Center.

We saw each other every day. We went to the same seminars. We went to the same meetings. We went to the same parties.

Her specialty was aerodynamics simulation. I had the pleasure of working with her on several projects. She tutored me on the techniques I needed to implement overset grid methods on the connection machine, techniques that she was a leading expert on.

When she was accepted by the astronaut corps, she left behind - without hesitation - her career as a computational aerodynamicist at NASA in Northern California to instead train for spaceflight at NASA in Texas.

I asked her when and if she thought she would actually fly. She told me it would take a few years but that she would fly - because once you are accepted into the corps, you fly. It would be a waste otherwise, for the agency and for the trainees.

She loved flying as well as the science of flight. She was a private pilot and an aerodynamic engineer. She made the transition to astronaut after years of working for NASA in aerodynamics and after the Challenger accident and subsequent investigation.

She knew the risks. She accepted them with absolute enthusiasm and no equivocation. Even before her first shuttle mission in 1997, she had become a hero to all Indians and especially to all Indian girls.

I'm sure she did her job on the shuttle crew with the same unique blend of serious intensity and humor that I remember from her days at Ames. I had always thought we would see her come back to Ames. Perhaps someday as the director.

Everyone who knew her and indeed everyone in both of her countries is shocked and in grief. But grief is not the lasting message. The lasting message is, I believe, spoken to all the girls of India and thence to all young people in our planetary culture. The message is that with education, perseverance, and confidence you can achieve your goals, you can realize your dreams, you can achieve singular heroism.

We here at NASA have the enormous privilege of working together in support of our planet's first conscious steps into the greater cosmos. I implore us: Honor Kalpana and honor the extent of her dedication by doing what is right - not merely what is expedient. Take strength, take inspiration from her example.

She died not after a life of pursuing her own comfort but rather in the midst of pursuing our highest collective goals.

— Creon Levit, 2/1/2003