A condolence meeting to remember Kalpana Chawla, who died along with six other astronauts in the Columbia space shuttle crash, will be held in Parliament on Wednesday.

Announcing this, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said in New Delhi on Tuesday that the entire nation is in grief following Chawla's death.

He recounted his meeting with her at a party hosted by the then US vice-president Al Gore.

"At that time she had already undertaken a space voyage. But unfortunately, she did not return after the second feat," he said.

The Columbia Crash: The Complete Coverage