New York: A street in Jackson Heights, a New York suburb with predominantly Indian shops, has been formally named "Kalpana Chawla Way" in honour of the India-born astronaut who was killed along with six other astronauts when space shuttle Columbia disintegrated in midair.

Dedicating the road to her, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg paid tributes to her courage and described her as "heroine of two countries".

"When people walk by this street, they would know that she was someone who made a difference even if they did not know her," he said.

The Mayor also made a gaffe when he said he had walked with her a year earlier at the India Day parade. A reporter corrected him that the woman astronaut he had walked with was not Chawla but another Indian-American astronaut Sunita Lynn Williams.

Chawla was among the seven astronauts who perished when the Columbia shuttle broke up as it entered earth's atmosphere back from a space mission on Feb 1, 2003. The shuttle disintegrated after the insulation, which was meant to deflect heat, was damaged during the take off.

The shuttle has not flown since then as experts make improvement to ensure that such accidents are not repeated.