VIJAYAWADA/GUNTUR: Thirty-year-old Sirisha Bandla is all set to become the first Telugu-origin woman to go into space. She will be part of the crew of Virgin Galactic’s next test space flight on July 11.
Virgin Galactic on Thursday announced the launch of its fourth test flight to space. Sirisha, whose roots are in Guntur district, will be accompanying the company’s founder Richard Branson, as a key member of the crew in the journey.
Interestingly, Sirisha was born in Tenali when the US-resident parents Dr Murali and Anuradha were in India on a visit about 25 years ago. She, however, went back to the US and pursued her studies in pure sciences. “It is really a thrilling moment for the entire family,” said Dr Kanneganti Rama Rao, uncle of Sirisha.
Virgin announced the launch of its space flight on Thursday, much ahead of its competitor Jeff Bezos of Amazon.
Sirisha grew up in Houston, dreamt of becoming pilot
Meanwhile, Sirisha will be the third woman of Indian origin after Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams to travel into space.
The VSS Unity spacecraft will take off from New Mexico carrying a full crew of Virgin Galactic’s employees. Astronaut 004, Sirisha, who is the government affairs vice-president, Beth Moses, chief astronaut instructor, along with lead operations engineer Colin Bennett will be heading the mission while pilots Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci will be flying the spacecraft.
In a promo video released by the Virgin Galactic’s official Twitter account, Sirisha, whose parents hail from Tenali, explained that her role is to test the ‘researcher experience’. Srisha was born in Andhra Pradesh and grew up in Houston, Texas.
Sirisha’s grandfather Ragaiah Bandla, a scientist, is said to have inspired her to learn more sciences which finally led her to study space. “We knew Sirisha Bandla will be a rockstar in future when she won the Youth Star Award at Telugu Association of North America for her achievements way back in 2014,” said Jampala V Chowdary, a member of TANA.
Her biography on Branson’s company website explains that it was Sirisha’s childhood dream to travel and learn more about space. She pursued her bachelor’s degree in aeronautical-astronautical engineering from Purdue University and later obtained an MBA degree from George Washington University. Sirisha later worked in the space policy department of Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF), an industrial association of space flight companies.
She told media that she had initially wanted to join the US Air Force as a pilot.
At high-school level, poor eyesight had discouraged Sirisha from pursuing her dreams of becoming either pilot or astronaut. However, she explained that SpaceshipOne becoming the first private vehicle to travel into the space has reignited her dreams and think beyond Nasa.
