Kalpana Chawla’s father Banarasi Lal Chawla passes away at 90

India’s first female astronaut late Kalpana Chawla’s father Banarasi Lal Chawla passed away at a private hospital in Karnal in the wee hours of Tuesday. He was 90.

Chawla was undergoing treatment for the past few days, following an illness. His body will be donated to Karnal’s Kalpana Chawla Medical College, say sources close to the family.

Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian-born woman and second Indian in history to go to space, tragically died on February 1, 2003. The Haryana-born female astronaut died along with six others — just 16 minutes before landing as the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas during its re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.