Who is Sirisha Bandla? Second India-Born Woman to Go to Space

Sirisha Bandla, an Indian-American is set to be the second India-born woman to go to space, following in the footsteps of Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian-American woman to go to space. The space mission, Unity22, with Virgin Galactic, was announced on July 2. The mission will have 2 pilots, Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci, and 4 mission specialists, Beth Moses, Colin Bennett, Sirisha Bandla and Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic. This will be Virgin Galactic’s fourth flight to space, on July 11, subject to weather conditions. Branson also shared a tweet with a picture of the 6 crew members. 

Sirisha Bandla's education, and work with Virgin Galactic

Sirisha Bandla, Vice President of Government Affairs at Virgin Galactic pursued her Bachelor’s of Science (B.S.) in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Purdue University from 2006 to 2011. Bandla then went on to pursue her MBA from George Washington University from 2012 to 2015. Her work with Virgin Galactic started in July 2015, eventually leading to her being promoted as VP of Government Affairs in January 2021 and being the second woman of Indian origin set to go into space in July 2021. 

#Unity22 being reshared on Twitter handles

Bandla reshared the tweet by Virgin Galactic, with the #Unity22 announcement, and said, "I am so incredibly honored 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." Bandla continued to write in the thread, "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 cUoapital text, and positivity yesterday. Slowly working my way through them...one platform at a time!" 

Richard Branson's mission updates on social media

While Sirisha Bandla goes down in history to follow the lead of Kalpana Chawla in space travel, this milestone is being celebrated globally, with over 8.8K likes on the Twitter announcement by Virgin Galactic. Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin group also well known for his authored books, shared numerous tweets with information and updates about the mission. Branson said, 

"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 https://virg.in/4wiq #Unity22"

(Image: Twitter - @SirishaBandla, @virgingalactic/AP)