War sends NASA men home, students sulk

As American cruise missiles streaked the skies over Baghdad, school and college-going students here had a reason to be upset. The Iraq crisi...

As American cruise missiles streaked the skies over Baghdad, school and college-going students here had a reason to be upset. The Iraq crisis has deprived them of an opportunity to interact with NASA astronauts and colleagues of the late Kalpana Chawla.

The NASA team — including Chawla’s successor Commander Suneeta Williams, who has been selected by NASA for future space missions — was scheduled to travel across India, interacting with students all over the country.

Both sides had been looking forward to the visit. But all that changed 24 hours before the first cruise missile was launched by the Americans in the Gulf. Officials co-ordinating the visit in India said that the astronauts had already left a day before the strikes began. Washington at that time was still preparing to launch their attack on Baghdad.

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In New Delhi, eager students were seen clutching their blue invitation cards that would have taken them to the Nehru Planetarium and the National Science Centre on March 21. ‘‘It is a big disappointment for the children. And though we will still have a small programme, many schools have decided to drop out,’’ an official overseeing the visit told The Indian Express.

At the National Science Centre, this came as a double blow with Chawla’s demise depriving them of a chance to initiate programmes that would have popularised science education in India. Chawla had sent several mails to the authorities at the Centre, expressing her desire to contribute towards science education in India.

However, Chawla’s parents, father Banarsidas and mother Sanyogita, husband Jean Pierre Harrison, sisters Deepa and Sunita and brother Romy have decided to fill in for the NASA astronauts who could not make it. They will address the children tomorrow morning at the National Science Centre.

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