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HOUSTON: Incredible Experience To See Earth From Space: India-Born Sirisha Bandla
HOUSTON: Indian-American astronaut Sirisha
Bandla says it was an “incredible” and a “life-changing”
experience to see the Earth from space during her maiden trip on Virgin
Galactic’s first fully-crewed suborbital test flight and hopes the price tag
for space travel will come down in future.
Bandla, a
34-year-old aeronautical engineer on Sunday joined British billionaire Richard
Branson and four others on board Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Unity to make a
journey to the edge of space from the US state of New Mexico.
They
reached an altitude of about 88 kilometres over the New Mexico desert – enough
to see the curvature of the Earth. The crew experienced a few minutes of
weightlessness before making a gliding descent back to Earth.
“I
am kind of still up there but it’s so glad to be here. I was trying to think
about a better word than incredible but that is the only word that can come to
my mind… Seeing the view of Earth is so life-changing but also the boost the
rocket motor kicking in. The whole trip to space and back is just
amazing”, Bandla told the NBC News in an interview.
Bandla
described the moment as emotional and said, “I have been dreaming of going
to space since I was young and literally it is a dream come true,” she
said.
“I
have wanted to be an astronaut but I wasn’t able to go in the traditional
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) role and I took a very
unconventional way to go to space and I do believe that a lot of people are
going to be able to experience this and that’s why we are here,” she said.
Bandla’s
poor eyesight could not meet the requirements to become a pilot or an astronaut
for NASA.
On being
asked if this was just a joyride for rich people, she said “As Virgin
Galactic builds up…this is VSS Unity’s ride to space today but we have got
two more spaceships in the manufacture and we hope the cost would come
down.”
Bandla,
who was born in Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh and brought up in Houston,
was astronaut No 004 and her flight role was Researcher Experience. The other
crew members were two pilots and three other crewmates, including billionaire
Branson, who turns 71 in a week.
She
became the third Indian-origin woman to fly into space after Kalpana Chawla and
Sunita Williams. Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma is the only Indian citizen to
travel in space. The former Indian Air Force pilot flew aboard Soyuz T-11 on
April 3, 1984, part of the Soviet Interkosmos programme.
Bandla
moved to the US when she was 4-year-old and graduated with a Bachelor of
Science degree from the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue
University in 2011. She finished her Master of Business Administration degree
from George Washington University in 2015.
Virgin
Galactic – the business Branson started in 2004 – aims to fly private citizens
to the edge of space. The trips are designed to permit passengers to experience
three to four minutes of weightlessness and observe the curvature of Earth.
The
Virgin Galactic carrier can launch up to eight people (two pilots and six
passengers) on the Unity 22 flight, but on Sunday there were only six occupants
(two pilots and four passengers).
The four
mission specialists evaluated different experiences that Virgin Galactic has
promised its future customers, many of whom have already reserved trips to
space with the company at USD 250,000 a seat.