India-Born Sirisha Bandla To Fly On Virgin Galactic Spacecraft Tomorrow

Sirisha Bandla, who was born in Andhra Pradesh and brought up in the US, will join Sir Richard Branson and five others on board Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Unity to make a journey to the edge of space from New Mexico.

Sirisha Bandla, a 34-year-old aeronautical engineer, is set to become the third Indian-origin woman to head to space when she flies as part of Virgin Galactic's first fully crewed flight test on Sunday. Ms Bandla, who was born in Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh and brought up in Houston, Texas, will join Sir Richard Branson, the company's billionaire founder, and five others on board Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Unity to make a journey to the edge of space from New Mexico. "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 tweeted. Ms Bandla will be astronaut no 004 and her flight role will be Researcher Experience, according to her profile on Virgin Galactic.She will become the third Indian-origin woman to fly into space after Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams.