JOURNEY TO THE STARS

A picture-book biography of the first Indian American astronaut.

As a child, Kalpana Chawla (1962-2003) loved sketching airplanes. At 11, she flew for the first time, an experience that cemented her dream of studying the skies. After earning a degree from Punjab Engineering College, she earned a master’s degree from the University of Texas at Arlington. In Texas, she learned to fly and married her flight instructor, Jean-Pierre Harrison. The two moved to Colorado, where Chawla pursued a Ph.D. After years of hard work and perseverance, she flew her first mission on the shuttle Columbia in 1997. She brought evidence of her Indian heritage, including a flag representing Air India (mistakenly referred to here as Indian Airlines). While the book offers a clear overview of Chawla’s life, it feels frustratingly vague at times. Readers find out only several pages in that Chawla grew up in India; her hometown is never mentioned. While the authors note that the faculty at Punjab Engineering College attempted to dissuade her from pursuing her passion, they don’t explain why, though a reference to her being the first woman to graduate with a degree in aeronautical engineering alludes to the sexism she experienced. Information on Chawla’s death—she was killed in 2003 when the Columbia exploded in midair—is relegated to a timeline in the backmatter. The upbeat artwork has a somewhat static feeling.

A heartfelt yet hazy account of a pioneering woman in STEM.​