Sirisha Bandla became the third woman of Indian origin to fly to space following NASA astronauts Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams. She is the Vice President of government affairs and research operations at Branson’s Virgin Galactic. She was one among the five people who accompanied Richard Branson while flying to space.
Sirisha was born in Chirala in her maternal grandmother’s home. Later, the family shifted to Tenali in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. Following this, she traveled to Houston along with her parents, who were government employees.
Sirisha Bandla aspired to be an astronaut for the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Due to her poor eyesight, she was unable to meet the requirements needed to become a pilot or an astronaut.
Richard Branson, along with Sirisha and other people, were on Virgin Galatic’s first fully crewed suborbital test flight from New Mexico. The Spaceplane, Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity took off for the 1.5-hour mission above New Mexico.
Ahead of the flight, Sirisha tweeted, “I am so incredibly honored to be a part of the amazing crew of #Unity 22, and to be a part of a company whose mission is to make space available to all.”
I really didn't need to tweet this since my friends flooded the feed yesterday with it❤️I was overwhelmed (in a good way!) by messages of love, unrecognizable capital text, and positivity yesterday. Slowly working my way through them…one platform at a time!
— Sirisha Bandla (@SirishaBandla) July 2, 2021
As far as the reports are concerned, the major aim for Unity 22 was to serve as a test flight for future commercial passenger flights by Virgin Galactic.
Virgin Galactic was established by Branson in the year 2004. It proposes to fly private citizens to the edge of the space. The trips are designed to allow passengers to witness three to four minutes of weightlessness and observe the curvature of Earth.
