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NORTH AmERIcAN Newsline JULY 16, 2021 | The Indian Eye 22

To Space and back, Sirisha Bandla

touches a new height

With an hour-long voyage on billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic vessel,

the researcher becomes the third Indian American woman to fly

Our Bureau Bandla, 34, had tweeted in a vid-
eo posted on the Twitter handle
New York, NY of Virgin Galactic on July 6.

irisha Bandla, vice presi- “When I first heard that I was
dent of government affairs getting this opportunity, it was
Sand research operations at just… I was speechless. I think
Branson’s Virgin Galactic, be- that that probably captured it
came the third woman of Indian very well,” she said. “This is an
origin — after NASA astronauts incredible opportunity to get
Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Wil- people from different back-
liams — to fly to space. grounds, different geographies
“From a very young age she and different communities into
had this ambition to explore the space.”
sky, the moon, and the stars. Sir- On the flight, she used an
isha had set her eyes on space, experiment from the University
and I am not at all surprised of Florida that requires several
that she is all set to realize her handheld fixation tubes that will
dream,” Sirisha’s grandfather Dr be activated at various points in
Bandla Nagaiah told The Indian the flight profile.
Express before the flight com- The gleaming white space
menced on Sunday. plane was borne with a twin-fuse-
“After hearing the news that lage carrier jet VMS Eve, named
she was part of the team to go after Branson’s mother. The pri-
into space, I called her. She was mary objective for Unity 22 was
driving but still answered the to serve as a test flight for future
call. When I congratulated her, commercial passenger flights by
she said yes, finally it is happen- Virgin Galactic.
ing, and said ‘thank you, thata The Company’s fourth rock-
(grandfather)’,’’ Dr Nagaiah said. al University, said. from the spacecraft as it made its et-powered spaceflight was the
Branson, Sirisha, and four Sirisha was born in Chirala way back to the Earth. 22nd test flight of VSS Unity and
others — pilots David Mackay in her maternal grandmother’s The flight reached a peak the first test flight with a full crew
and Michael Masucci, Virgin home. The family then moved altitude of around 53 miles — in the cabin, including the Com-
Galactic’s chief astronaut in- to Tenali in Guntur. Till the age beyond the boundary of space pany’s founder, Branson.
structor Beth Moses, and lead of 5, Sirisha spent time between — over the New Mexico desert, The crew fulfilled a number of
operations engineer Colin Ben- Hyderabad where Nagaiah lived, allowing the passengers to expe- test objectives related to the cab-
nett — travelled to the edge of and Tenali at her grandmother’s rience a minute of weightlessness in and customer experience, in-
space before returning to earth house. With an hour-long voyage and admire the Earth’s curvature. cluding evaluating the commer-
aboard the Galactic Unity 22 on billionaire Richard Branson’s Branson, who has become the cial customer cabin, the views of
spacecraft. Virgin Galactic vessel, aeronauti- first person to travel to the edge Earth from space, the conditions
“She visited Guntur last No- cal engineer Sirisha has become of space in his own spaceship, for conducting research and the
vember, and as usual she was the third Indian American wom- Branson described the journey effectiveness of the five-day pre-
full of energy and bubbling with an to fly to the edge of space. as the “experience of a lifetime.” flight training program at Space-
ideas. She did not talk about On return to earth, celebrat- He beat Jeff Bezos, the richest port America.
going to space when she visited ing their successful space flight, man in the world, who is slated Witnessed by audiences
last time but she did mention Branson carried Bandla on his to undertake a journey to space around the world, the flight gave
that she was doing very signifi- shoulders at Spaceport Ameri- just a few days later, on July 20. a glimpse of the journey N’s Fu-
cant work. She is very decisive ca near Truth or Consequences, “I am so incredibly honored ture Astronauts can expect when
and has very good leadership New Mexico, on July 11. “The to be a part of the amazing crew the Company launches commer-
qualities,” Nagaiah, who retired whole thing… it was just mag- of #Unity22, and to be a part cial service following the com-
as an agriculture scientist from ical,” the 71-year-old business of a company whose mission is pletion of its test flight program,
Acharya N G Ranga Agricultur- magnate said during a live feed to make space available to all,” it said in a media release.

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