The Indian woman who went to space and died was Kalpana Chawla.
Kalpana Chawla was the first woman of Indian origin to travel to space and was one of the 7 astronauts that died when the Columbia Space Shuttle disintegrated during it's re-entry into Earth's atmosphere in 2003.
Kalpana Chawla was born March 17th 1962 and died in February 1st 2003 and was an American astronaut and aerospace engineer that was the first woman of Indian origin to fly to space.
The Columbia astronauts didn't know they were in trouble until at least 40 seconds before the event occurred, although they were likely experiencing some unusual sensor readings as well as vibrations, although they were not aware that the shuttle they were in was disintegrating until very shortly before the final catastrophic event occurred.
NASA's Mission Control though was aware of the potential issues that were occurring with the left wing and most particularly after a piece of foam struck it during liftoff, but the crew were not fully informed of the extent of the damage.
There was also a brief period of time, as the shuttle was entering the atmosphere in which there also also no contact to them.
The crew of the space shuttle Columbia knew of the catastrophic re-entry failure and knew they were going to die 40 seconds before the catastrophic event occurred.
And roughly 80 seconds into the launch, a briefcase size piece of insulating foam broke off from the external fuel tank and struck the underside of the Columbia's left wing, although neither the astronauts or the personnel in Mission Control were away of the problem that was occurring.
The bodies of Columbia astronauts did get recovered although the bodies were not fully intact.
Among the remains of the Columbia astronauts that were recovered are a charred torso, thigh bone and skull with front teeth, and a charred leg.
An empty astronaut's helmet also could contain some genetic traces.
Remains of some astronauts have been found," according to Eileen Hawley, a spokeswoman for Johnson Space Center.
The astronauts of the Columbia disaster likely had survived the initial breakup of the shuttle.
However they soon would've passed out as the cabin depressurized.
The astronauts of the Columbia disaster died as the shuttle broke up around them, and also a result of the immense speed of the re-entry which created temperatures of up to 2,691 degrees Fahrenheit.
All seven of the Columbia astronauts remains were found within a 5 mile radius of the crash.
Data from the vehicle had shown rising temperatures within sections of the left wing as early as 8:52 am, although the crew knew of their situation for perhaps only a minute or so before vehicle breakup.
The seven astronauts who perished on Space Shuttle Columbia's final mission (STS-107) were Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, Laurel Clark, and Ilan Ramon.
The Columbia space shuttle disaster occurred on February 1st 2003 and the shuttle broke apart over Texas and claimed the lives of all 7 of the astronauts on board.
The mission which was designated STS-107, had launched on January 16th 2003, for a 16 day science mission.