Andhra Pradesh: A girl from the Andhra Pradesh State, India – Sirisha Bandla will be the Second India-born girl after Kalpana Chawla – who will fly to space.
Bandla will fly to space with Richard Branson on July 11. She is part of a six-member crew and will be taking care of the researcher’s experience on the Unity22 mission.
Richard Branson is a UK billionaire and founder of the Virgin Galactic – a leading American private space agency.
Sirisha Bandla will also become the fourth Indian-origin to fly into space after Rakesh Sharma, Kalpana Chawla, and Sunita Williams.
Sirisha Bandla was born in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur district and was brought up in Houston in the US. She has completed her graduation in the field of aeronautical engineering from Purdue University, US in 2011.
She finished her Master’s in business administration from George Washington University in 2015 and then started working for Virgin Galactic. She is the Vice President of Government Affairs at the British-American spaceflight company nowadays.
Virgin Galactic said in its official statement said that “Our first fully crewed rocket-powered test flight is planned to take place on July 11th with two pilots and four mission specialists including Richard Branson on-board”
Bandla on her social media account – tweeted that “I am so incredibly honored to be a part of the amazing crew of #Unity22, and to be a part of a company whose mission is to make space available to all,”
Branson announced on June 2 that he will make a spaceflight on July 11, earlier than Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.