ARIZONIA: Sirisha Bandla, The Indian-American On Virgin Galactic’s Space Mission

ARIZONIA: On July 11, when billionaire
entrepreneur Richard Branson, along with a crew, travels to the edge of space
on a Virgin Galactic test flight, astronaut Sirisha Bandla will be taking care
of the researcher experience on the Unity22 mission. And while the flight
marks a key milestone in the area of private commercial space travel, Indians
have a separate reason to cheer.

Sirisha
Bandla, astronaut number 4 on the crew, was born in Andhra Pradesh and grew up
in Houston. She is also the Vice President, Government Affairs and Research
Operations at Virgin Galactic. 

“Indian-origin
women continue to break the proverbial glass ceiling and prove their
mettle,” tweeted former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister NN Chandrababu Naidu
on Friday. “On July 11, Sirisha Bandla with Telugu roots is set to fly to
space aboard VSS Unity with Richard Branson and the team marking the dawn of
the new space age, making all Indians proud,” the post read.

Mr Naidu
shared two pictures – one featuring all five members of the crew and a
solo photo of Ms Bandla. 

Soon
after the Telugu Desam Party president’s tweet, people not just congratulated
Ms Bandla on her achievement but also acknowledged that it would encourage many
more women to join the field. 

“Yes,
sir. She is surely gonna make the land proud. More power to you Sirisha Bandla
you will be an inspiration to many. Fly Colours,” a user wrote.

Another
said, “Encourage, educate and empower.”

Here are
some more reactions:

The same
day, Ms Bandla, too, quote-tweeted a Virgin Galactic post carrying a video that
featured all the crew members, including “astronaut number 1, Richard
Branson.”

“I
am so incredibly honoured 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,”
she said. 

In a
subsequent tweet, the astronaut said that she was overwhelmed by messages of
love.  “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 capital text, and positivity yesterday. Slowly working my
way through them…One platform at a time,” she wrote.

In the
introduction video shared by Virgin Galactic, Mr Branson said that he will be
evaluating the customer spaceflight experience, adding that as the founder of
the company, he was proud of the crew he has by his side as they fly to space.
“This July our dream will become a reality and we are excited to share it
with you all,” he said. Not just that, Mr Branson also left people guessing
about what he is going to announce when he returns. 

“When
we return from space, I will announce something very exciting to give more
people the chance to become an astronaut. Because space belongs to us all. So
watch this space,” the billionaire said.