Andhra girl Sirisha Bandla among the six to fly into space with Richard Branson

In yet another proud moment for the people of Andhra Pradesh, Sirisha Bandla, an Indian American girl, is amongst the team of six astronauts who will fly into space along with Virgin Galactic’s founder Sir Richard Branson. She will be appraising the human-tended research experience on the trip. Sirisha Bandla will also be the fourth Indian and second Indian-born woman to fly into space preceded by Rakesh Sharma, Kalpana Chawla, and Sunita Williams.

Sirisha Bandla was born in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, and grew up in Houston, Texas. With a degree in Aeronautical Engineering, from Purdue University, and a Master of Business, from Georgetown University, she began her career at L-3 Communications as an aerospace engineer designing sophisticated aircraft components. Sirisha later joined the space policy job at the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. With years of experience, she took charge as Government Affairs Manager at Virgin Galactic in 2015. Since then, Sirisha has been rising through the ranks and was also part of the Virgin Orbit that landed a satellite into space using a 747 plane. 

Andhra girl Sirisha Bandla is currently a member of the board of directors of the Space Leaders Foundation and American Astronautical Society. She also serves as a member of  Purdue University’s Young Professional Advisory Council. Sirisha is also closely associated with the Telugu Association of North America (TANA) and an active member. 

Today has been a happening day with announcements from Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic coming one after the other. Jeff Bezos announced that he would be accompanied by an 82-year-old woman pilot Wally Funk. Then the announcement from Virgin Galactic followed a few hours later. Overall, Amazon, Virgin, and SpaceX have been at the forefront to commercialize space travel. While Bezos and Branson aim for space, Elon Musk has been planning to send people to Mars. The fully crewed space flight, set to launch on 11 July, also promise a global live stream. catch it live on www.virgingalcactic.com.