“Incredibly Honored”: Sirisha Bandla, Part Of Virgin's Mission

Sirisha Bandla: born in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur and grew up in Houston, Texas, & started working at Virgin Galactic in 2015. Sirisha Bandla, a 34-year-old aeronautical engineer is one of the five astronauts alongside Virgin Galactic’s billionaire founder Richard Branson who is embarking on a journey to space aboard ‘VSS Unity/Unity 22’ test flight of Virgin Galactic scheduled to blast off on July 11 from New Mexico. As astronaut number 004, Bandla’s role will be that of a researcher experience.

Unity 22 Mission of Virgin Galactic

The “Unity 22” mission which is all set to take off on July 11 will be the twenty-second flight test for VSS Unity and the Company’s fourth crewed spaceflight. It will also be the first to carry a full crew of two pilots and four mission specialists in the cabin, including the Company’s founder, Sir Richard Branson, who will be testing the private astronaut experience.

Sirisha Bandla, the Second Indian-born woman to fly into space on July 11. It is pertinent to mention here that the first Indian-origin woman to achieve the feat was Kalpana Chawla. She is also the fourth ever Indian to do so. The other two Indians who flew into space were Rakesh Sharma and Sunita Lyn Williams.

It’s a source of pride for the people of Andhra Pradesh, the state her family calls home. According to a CNBC-TV18 report. Her father, Muralidhar Bandla is an agriculture scientist, said the report. He migrated to the United States for better opportunities and is presently working with the US Embassy in India.

At present-Bandla is the Vice President of Government Affairs and Research Operations at Virgin Galactic.

Educational Background– A graduate of Indiana’s Purdue University from the school of aeronautics and astronautics, she had ambitions of being an astronaut as a child. Bandla also has a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Georgetown University.

Her passion for space has seen her move up from a Co-op or an intern to positions such as Associate Director of the Washington DC-based Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) and her current stint at Virgin Galactic in less than a decade.

In the past, she has served as the associate director in the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, an industry association of commercial spaceflight companies. Bandla also worked as a mechanical engineer at L-3 Communications.

She was also associated with the Telugu Association of North America (TANA), which is reportedly the oldest and biggest Indo-American organization in the region. A few years ago, TANA honored her with the Youth Star Award, said the report. (CNBC-TV18 report)

In one of her interactions, last year, hosted by the ‘Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship Program (MIFP)’, Bandla stressed the importance of representation and the need for youngsters to participate in the “commercial space industry.”

The MIFP fellowship is an internship program for students in the commercial space industry. Bandla highlighted how such programs could be of help especially for women and “people of color” who wanted to be part of the industry.

‘Don’t often see students who look like me in this industry.’

“You guys are all ambassadors for students that want to be part of the industry and don’t know what this is. I don’t often see students who look like me in this industry just yet,” Bandla told host Shayna Hume in the September 2020 session.