Sirisha Bandla, 3rd Indian-origin woman to fly to space after Kalpana Chawla

Billionaire Richard Branson will take off to space on July 11 with a crew including astronaut Sirisha Bandla, who is the third Indian-origin woman after Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams to go to space.

Sirisha Bandla, who is the Vice President, Government Affairs and Research Operations at Virgin Galactic, on the Unity22 mission on a Virgin Galactic test flight will handle the researcher experience.

The astronaut number 4 on the crew, Sirisha Bandla was born in Andhra Pradesh and brought up in Houston, Texas.

Former Andhra Pradesh chief minister, Chandrababu Naidu on Friday tweeted about Sirisha Bandla and said, “Indian-origin women continue to break the proverbial glass ceiling and prove their mettle.”

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“On July 11, Sirisha Bandla with Telugu roots is set to fly to space aboard VSS Unity with Richard Branson and the team marking the dawn of the new space age, making all Indians proud,” he further wrote in the tweet and shared two pictures, one of all five crew members and one solo of Sirisha Bandla.

Sirisha Bandla, 34, on Friday said, “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.”

Richard Branson on Thursday announced that the test flight will take on July and will launch from New Mexico. This came after Virgin Galactic got the Federal Government’s approval in June to launch customers into space after a successful test flight in May.

It will only be the fourth trip of Virgin Galactic to space.