California, USA (CU)_ Sirisha Bandla, an Indian-American woman astronaut, will travel to the edge of space on Virgin Galactic’s ‘VSS Unity,’ which will take off on July 11 from New Mexico. This is notable because, after Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams, she would be the third woman of Indian descent to enter into space. Bandla, who is the vice-president of government affairs at Virgin Galactic in Washington, DC, will travel with her employer and the group’s pioneer, billionaire Richard Branson, and four other astronauts in the company’s spaceflight. Bandla will be in charge of the Unity22 mission’s researcher experience.
The 34-year-old astronaut is originally from the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. She and her family immigrated to the United States when she was four years old. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the school of aeronautics and astronautics from Purdue University in Indiana. Bandla also graduated from Georgetown University with a masters degree in Business Administration. Bandla took to Twitter to share the happy news. She tweeted, “Incredibly honoured to be part of the crew. I am so incredibly honoured 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”.
N Chandrababu Naidu, the former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, also appreciated the astronautical engineer on Twitter. He tweeted, “Indian-origin women continue to break the proverbial glass ceiling and prove their mettle. On July 11th, 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!”.
Branson stated on June 2 that he will start his space travel on July 11, ahead of billionaire Jeff Bezos. The Amazon entrepreneur has planned to start his space mission on the New Shepard spaceship on July 20. During the announcement, Branson tweeted, “I’ve always been a dreamer. My mum taught me to never give up and to reach for the stars. On July 11, it’s time to turn that dream into a reality aboard the next @VirginGalactic spaceflight”.
