By IANS
Chandigarh : A planetarium in the memory of India-born astronaut Kalpana Chawla will be inaugurated at Kurukshetra town in Haryana Tuesday.
Deputy Chief Minister Chander Mohan said Monday the planetarium at Kurukshetra, around 100 km from here, had been set up at a cost of Rs.65 million with funding from the central and state governments.
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda will inaugurate the planetarium in the presence of Tourism Minister Ambika Soni.
Astronaut Kalpana Chawla died with six others when US space agency NASA's Columbia space shuttle disintegrated on re-entry into earth's atmosphere Feb 1, 2003.
Kalpana was born in Karnal town in Haryana. After her schooling in Karnal, she completed her aeronautical engineering degree from Chandigarh's Punjab Engineering College.
Chander Mohan said the planetarium would be a source of inspiration for people, especially students, as they would know more about Kalpana Chawla and her heroism.
Kalpana had been on NASA's space mission twice. She had been to space in Columbia earlier in 1997.