The 34-year-old aeronautical engineer, who was born in Andhra Pradesh's Guntur and grew up in Houston, Texas, will be the second Indian-born woman to go into space after Kalpana Chawla and the fourth Indian to fly into space.
On July 11, when Virgin Galactic founder and billionaire Richard Branson reaches for the stars on board Unity 22, he will be accompanied by five more astronauts. But it is astronaut 004 who has got the social media abuzz.
Astronaut 004 is Indian American Sirisha Bandla. The 34-year-old aeronautical engineer, who was born in Andhra Pradesh's Guntur and grew up in Houston, Texas, will be the second Indian-born woman to go into space after Kalpana Chawla and the fourth Indian to fly into space.
During the spaceflight, Sirisha Bandla, who is vice president of government affairs and research operations at Virgin Galactic, will be evaluating the human-tended research experience.
She will be using an experiment from the University of Florida that requires several handheld fixation tubes, which will be activated at various points in the flight profile.
On July 2, after Branson announced the crew of Virgin Galactic's first fully crewed rocket-powered test flight, Sirisha Bandla took to Twitter to say how "incredibly honoured" she was to be a part of the crew and be a part of a company whose mission is to make space available to all.
I really didn't need to tweet this since my friends flooded the feed yesterday with it❤️I was overwhelmed (in a good way!) by messages of love, unrecognizable capital text, and positivity yesterday. Slowly working my way through them...one platform at a time!
— Sirisha Bandla (@SirishaBandla)Sirisha Bandla announcement sparked a frenzy in India. From actors to politicians to government representatives, the 34-year-old Indian American had become an icon and an inspiration for many.
Up and beyond!🚀🧑🚀 extends best wishes to , who is set to become the second Indian-born woman to fly into space, along with the team at .
India is cheering for your successful mission! 🇮🇳 https://t.co/D8ZIfNRziM
Glorious feat for first Telugu girl to literally reach for the Stars! Proud moments for the parents, Telugus & all Indians! Congratulations & Wishing your mission a great success!! అంతరిక్షంలోకి ప్రయాణం చేయబోతున్న తొలి తెలుగమ్మాయి శిరీష కి శుభాకాంక్షలు! pic.twitter.com/VWARhwBUcC
— Chiranjeevi Konidela (@KChiruTweets)
Indian-origin women continue to break the proverbial glass ceiling and prove their mettle. On July 11th, with Telugu roots is set to fly to space aboard VSS Unity with and the team marking the dawn of the new space age, making all Indians proud! pic.twitter.com/oecuztDRBe
— N Chandrababu Naidu (@ncbn)Sirisha Bandla has earlier worked for a space policy job at the Commercial Spaceflight Federation and L-3 Communications in Greenville, Texas, as an aerospace engineer.
Besides being a part of Virgin Galactic, Sirisha Bandla is also on the board of directors of the Future Space Leaders Foundation and the American Astronautical Society.