From Andhra town to space with Branson: Sirisha Bandla on her flight to stardom

From a young child in an Andhra town who loved watching the stars to becoming the third Indian-origin woman (after Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams) to enter space last year, aeronautical engineer and commercial astronaut Sirisha Bandla has come a long way. During a recent visit to her country of birth, the vice-president of Virgin Galactic talks to Surendra Singh about her space journey

- Surendra Singh

Will you share your experience of space travel last year with company founder Richard Branson?

It was incredible. The flight (Virgin Galactic Unity 22 launched on July 11, 2021) went off very well. I wasn’t nervous, and everything on my test cards and mission objectives with my crewmates was completed. Though the suborbital testflight duration was 90 minutes, we experienced weightlessness for around 3-4 minutes in space. We turned to each other and gave high-fives. Richard was far from me, so we touched feet for a high-five. Given an opportunity, I would love to go to space again.

Tell us about your work at Virgin Galactic?