The recent trip to the moon has gotten us excited about space travel. It also feels like a wonderful excuse to talk about the first Indian American woman to ever travel to space. Though best known as one of the ____ astronauts who perished in the Columbia explosion in 2003, Kalpana Chawla's remarkable career as an aerospace engineer and an astronaut is truly a story worth knowing.
Chawla was born and raised in Karnal, India. Her path to becoming American was forged by the same thing as millions before and since: the pursuit of a beautiful dream. After receiving an undergraduate education in engineering in India, Chawla came to the U.S. to study aerospace engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington. Ever on the path towards flight, she became a naturalized citizen in the early '90s, a mandatory requirement for NASA astronauts.
Chawla completed her first space mission in 1997. Instead of getting it out of her system, the more than 15 day stint above the Earth seemed to embed the longing for the stars more deeply in her heart. She got a second shot at space in January 2003. A glorious nearly two week stint of joy and research. A star crossed science girl's dream. Sadly, her team did not make it safely back to Earth. Their shuttle disintegrated above the sky of Texas on February 1, 2003.
Innumerable things have been named after Kalpana Chawla in the years since her death. But, as far as we can tell, this is her first cookie.
We perfected our Chai Snickerdoodle (and our own spice blend) back in 2021. But this cookie isn't simple a reintroduction. The addition of our very favorite salted caramel truly took this cookie to infinity and beyond. The perfect elevation for a truly remarkable person.
Sold by the half-dozen
pairing suggestions: milk (or the alternative of your choice), nut butter, black tea, vanilla ice cream