As a part of Asian Pacific American Heritage month, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) celebrated the contributions of several Indian-origin scientists in the space agency including engineers, flight directors, astronauts, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and many more.

Kalpana Chawla

(Image Source: NewsBeezer.com)

Kalpana Chawla was the first woman Indian descent astronaut to go to space. As a NASA astronaut, she went to space on two missions as a NASA. She was one of seven crew members in NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia which disintegrated minutes after setting in motion from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

Chawla breathed her last on February 1, 2003, in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

Sunita Williams

(Image Source: The Indian Express)

Sunita Williams, the Indian-origin NASA astronaut, was assigned to the first mission to the International Space Station onboard Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner.

She is the recipient of the records for total spacewalks by a woman (seven) and most spacewalk time for a woman (50 hours, 40 minutes).

Dr. Sharmila Bhattacharya

One of the top Indian origin scientists at NASA is currently studying immune changes during spaceflight and effects of radiation and altered gravity on living systems at NASA Ames Research Center.

Manisha Ganeshan

(Image Source: Nasa)

Manisha Ganeshan is an Atmospheric Scientist for NASA Goddard. Born and raised in Mumbai, Ganeshan’s life changed forever when the ruinous floods hit Maharashtra in 2005. Although she and her family were all right, Ganeshan experienced a “wakeup call” and made up her mind to study climate change.

Swarupa Nune

(Image Source: NASA)

Swarupa Nune is currently a video producer for NASA Goddard. One of her many amazing projects included working with the National Philharmonic Orchestra to marry satellite images with Holst and Debussy compositions.

Mamta Patel Nagaraja

(Image Source: NASA Solar System Exploration)

The Indian-origin has been competent from training astronauts to designing scientific instruments, to now communicating NASA's discoveries to the public.

Narayanan Ramachandran

(Image Source: NASA)

A Jacobs Technology engineer at NASA’s Marshall Center, Narayanan Ramachandran gathers velocity data during recent SLS diffuser testing.

Raja Chari

(Image Source: m.huffingtonpost.in)

Raja Chari, the Indian descent was selected by NASA to join the 2017 Astronaut Candidate Class.

Pooja Joshi Jesrani

(Image Source: Brown Girl Magazine)

Pooja Joshi Jesrani is NASA’s first female South Asian flight director.

By Sowmya Sangam