Each time Kalpana leapt into space she felt excited. After her first trip she told an Indian newspaper: "It's amazing, addictive. The first view of the earth is magical. "It is a very overpowering realisation that the earth is so small. It affected me. I could not get over the notion that in such a small planet, with such a small ribbon of life, so much goes on."

And just hours before the crash she said from space: "Doing it again is like living a dream -- a good dream -- once again."

Photograph: JSC/NASA

Remembering Kalpana

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