Sirisha Bandla, a 34-year-old Aeronautical Engineer will be the second Indian-origin woman to head to space. She will be a part of Virgin Space Ship Unity that’ll take off to space scheduled to take off from New Mexico on July 11.
She completed her Bachelor of Science in Aerospace, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering in 2011 from Purdue University and went on to do her MBA from George Washington University in 2015.
She joined Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic after completing her studies and is currently the Vice President of Government Affairs at the British-American spaceflight company.
She was born in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, brought up in Houston will become the second India-born woman to fly into space after Kalpana Chawla. Rakesh Sharma and Sunita Williams were the other Indians who went into space prior to Bandla.