Sirisha Bandla: The second Indian-origin woman to fly to space

 As a child, Sirisha Bandla was always fascinated with the sky. Perhaps that is what drove her to delve into the mysteries of deep space. Today, the 34-year-old astronaut is the second Indian-origin woman, after Kalpana Chawla, to travel to space aboard Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity. Bandla will be one of the six crew members aboard the spaceship which is set to take off on July 11 from New Mexico.  

Bandla presently works as Vice Present of Government Affairs at the British-American spaceflight company owned by Richard Branson. When the flight was announced last week, Bandla took to Twitter to announce: 

Journey to space 

Born in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, in a Telugu family, Bandla’s dreams got wings when her father Muralidhar Bandla, an agriculture scientist, migrated to the US; she was 4 at the time. The family settled in Houston, Texas and their many field trips to the Johnson Space Centre, proved to be a catalyst for Bandla’s love for space.  

She completed her Bachelor of Science in Aerospace, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, in 2011. Incidentally, former astronauts Neil Armstrong, Gene Cernan, and Gus Grissom are some of the notable alumni of this university. Bandla then obtained an MBA from George Washington University in 2015 before joining Branson’s Virgin Galactic where she rose to her current position. She had earlier worked as Associate Director for Commercial Spaceflight Federation, an industry association of commercial spaceflight companies.  Read More

Sirisha Bandla is the second Indian-origin woman, after Kalpana Chawla, to travel to space aboard Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity.
Location: India

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