Andhra Pradesh-born Sirisha Bandla is all set to fly to space on July 11 from New Mexico as part of Virgin Galactic’s test flight. She will join the six-member team of ‘VSS Unity’ along with billionaire Richard Branson. Sirisha is the vice president of Virgin Galactic’s Government Affairs and Research Operations. On Twitter, the 34-year-old aeronautical engineer described her achievement as “incredibly honoured.” On the flight, she will research the human experience. This is a historic feat by an Indian woman after Sunita Williams and Kalpana Chawla.
Born in the Guntur district, Sirisha was raised in Houston. In 2011, she received a degree in aeronautical engineering from the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University. Later, she received MBA from Geroge Town University. Having begun her career as an aerospace engineer, she has also worked as a space policy expert in Commercial Space Flight Federation. Sirisha, who joined the Virgin Galatic in 2015, is the fourth Indian-origin to fly to space after Rakesh Sharma, Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams.
The test flight to be launched on July 11 is Virgin Galactic’s fourth attempt with crew members. Beth Moses, Chief Astronaut Instructor and Interiors Program Manager for Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo programme, will accompany Sirisha on this sub-orbital flight. Operations Engineer Collin Bennett is another member. Richard Branson announced his flight as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is getting ready to hit space via his Blue Origin on July 20. Bezos’ Blue Origin, Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Elon Musk’s SpaceX pose a tight competition in space tourism.
