Guntur: India-born Sirisha Bandla became the third Indian woman to go to space. She was one of the 6-crew members to be a part of billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic's test flight on July 11th.
Virgin Galactic's ‘VSS Unity’ launched into space from New Mexico at 10.30 am i.e. around 8 pm in India. After traveling in space for about 4 minutes, the craft successfully returned to Earth. Richard Branson celebrated space travel in his own style by lifting Sirisha on his shoulder.
The 34-year-old aeronautical engineer, who graduated from Purdue University is also the fourth Indian to ever go to space; preceded by Rakesh Sharma, Kalpana Chawla, and Sunita Williams. She was born in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, and grew up in Houston, Texas. Bandla also holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Georgetown University.
Bandla started working at Virgin Galactic in 2015 and is currently Vice President, Government Affairs and Research Operations of the company.
While speaking to Reuters, her grandfather, Dr Ragaiah, a retired scientist, said that Sirisha had always been fascinated by space.
"From the beginning, she was very much fascinated towards the sky, looking at the sky, space, how to enter space and what is there," he said.
"I am very happy and overwhelmed with joy. My second granddaughter, she is going to space."
The Virgin Galactic launched nine days ahead of Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin mission. When asked whether this was a race, Richard said, "I have said many times this is not a race, but I would like to say that everything was fine. I wish Jeff Bezos and his team the best of luck for the space-going team." Richard Branson, who returned from space, and the team are receiving congratulations from all over the world.
Once in space, Richard Branson had a special message for the next children hoping to reach space one day.
The success of Virgin Galactic's mission marks a milestone in the race to usher in a new era of private commercial space travel.