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NORTH AmERIcAN Newsline JULY 09, 2021 | The Indian Eye 28

Sirisha Bandla is all set to fly off into space on July 11

NeeraJ dhar advanced aircraft at L-3 Com-
North America-Bureau Chief munications in Greenville, Texas.
She has a Bachelors of Sci-
ndian American Sirisha ence degree in aeronautical/
Bandla is all set to fly off into astronautical engineering from
Ispace on July 11 as a mis- Purdue and holds a Masters of
sion specialist on Virgin Galac- Business Administration from
tic’s next test flight of its Space- George Washington University.
ShipTwo Unity with Company’s Meanwhile in India, the
founder, Sir Richard Branson. grandfather of an Indian-Amer-
The “Unity 22” mission, the ican astronaut said he was
twenty-second flight test for VSS “overwhelmed with joy” as she
Unity, will be the first to carry a prepares to become only the
full crew of two pilots and four second Indian-born woman to
mission specialists in the cab- visit space. Dr Ragaiah, a re-
in, according to a company an- tired scientist who goes by one
nouncement. name, told Reuters she had al-
Sirisha Bandla, 33, who was ways been fascinated by space.
born in Guntur district of India’s ence. Andhra, India born Bandla Kalpana Chawla and Sunita “From the beginning, she was
southern Andhra Pradesh state, will be using an experiment from Williams. very much fascinated towards
will be a part of billionaire entre- the University of Florida that re- Previously, Bandla served as the sky, looking at the sky, space,
preneur Richard Branson’s Vir- quires several handheld fixation the Associate Director for the how to enter space and what is
gin Galactic’s test flight on July tubes that will be activated at var- Commercial Spaceflight Feder- there,” he said.
11 that will travel beyond the ious points in the flight profile. “I ation, an industry association of “I am very happy and over-
edge of the earth’s atmosphere. am so incredibly honored to be a commercial spaceflight compa- whelmed with joy. My second
While boss Branson will be part of the amazing crew of #Uni- nies. At CSF, Bandla works on granddaughter, she is going to
testing the private astronaut ty22, and to be a part of a compa- various policies with the aim to space.”
experience, Bandla, Vice Presi- ny whose mission is to make space promote the commercial space Bandla is the second woman
dent of Government Affairs and available to all,” she tweeted. industry and make commercial born in India to enter space af-
Research Operations at Virgin Bandla will be the third Indi- spaceflight a reality. Before CSF, ter Kalpana Chawla, who died
Galactic, will be evaluating the an American woman to fly into she worked as an aerospace en- in the Columbia Space Shuttle
human-tended research experi- space after Karnal, India, born gineer designing components for disaster in 2003.

Abhimanyu Mishra becomes youngest-ever chess grandmaster

Our Bureau at 10 years, nine months, and three days,
New York breaking the record previously held by GM
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa by 17 days.
bhimanyu Mishra, a 12-year-old Mishra’s coach, GM Arun Prasad con-
player, scored his third GM norm gratulated his protege on his achievement
Ain Budapest, having already crossed and said it was a deserved reward for all of
the required 2500 Elo rating barrier. “Mish- his hard work. Mishra, born on February
ra defeated the 15-year-old Indian GM 5, 2009, took 12 years, four months, and 25
Leon Luke Mendonca with the black pieces, days to obtain the highest title in chess. He
securing a performance rating higher than was just two-and-a-half-years old when his
2600 over nine rounds,” stated an official father Hemant, who works in data man-
release on Chess.com. Mishra broke GM agement, introduced him to chess. By five,
Sergey Karjakin’s record that was standing he was beating his father and competing in
for 19 years. On August 12, 2002, Karjakin, local tournaments, where he started defeat-
a world championship challenger in 2016, ing players as old as his father.
secured the grandmaster title at the age of He spent several months in Budapest,
12 years and seven months. Hungary, playing back-to-back tourna-
“I hope that he will go on to become one ments, chasing the title and the record. He
of the top chess players and it will be just a scored both his first and second GM norms
nice start to his big career. I wish him all the there, at the April Vezerkepzo tournament
best,” added Karjakin in the report. and the May 2021 First Saturday tourna-
This is not Mishra’s first record shat- history at nine years and two months, and ment, both round-robins of 10 players spe-
tered. He was the youngest master in US the youngest International Master ever cially set up for scoring norms.

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