Columbia Disaster | The Heartbreaking Final Moments of Kalpana Chawla In this video, we take a deep and poignant look at one of the most tragic events in space exploration history—the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster. On February 1, 2003, the world was shaken when NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, leading to the loss of all seven crew members. Among them was Kalpana Chawla, a remarkable astronaut and the first woman of Indian origin to go to space.