New Delhi: Paying tributes to the memory of Astronaut Kalpana Chawla, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on February 5 announced that METSAT, the meteorological research satellite, will be renamed after her.

"I am pleased to dedicate in her memory METSAT, launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) through Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C-4 on September 22, 2002, as Kalpana-I," he told a condolence meeting at the Parliament House Annexe organised in her memory.

Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sonia Gandhi, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, ISRO Chairman K Kasturirangan and Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian cosmonaut, also addressed the meeting attended by Union Ministers, MPs and other dignitaries.

PTI