<p><strong>New Delhi:</strong> Sirisha Bandla will be joining five others including Richard Branson to fly to space aboard &lsquo;VSS Unity&rsquo; of Virgin Galactic. It is scheduled to launch on July 11th from New Mexico. Bandla will be the second Indian-born woman to go to space, the first being Kalpana Chawla.</p> <p>Bandla has joined the 6-member crew as a researcher experience.</p> <p><strong>ALSO READ: <span style="color: #f80707;"><a style="color: #f80707;" href="https://ift.tt/36bMTV6 Bans Its Citizens From Travelling To 14 Countries Including India</a></span></strong></p> <p>The 34-year-old aeronautical engineer, who graduated from Purdue University will also be the fourth Indian to ever go to space; preceded by Rakesh Sharma, Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams. The Virgin Galactic is set to launch nine days ahead of Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin mission. Taking to Twitter, Bandla shared she was &ldquo;incredibly honoured" to be part of the crew.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">I am so incredibly honored to be a part of the amazing crew of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Unity22?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Unity22</a>, and to be a part of a company whose mission is to make space available to all. <a href="https://ift.tt/3jANsjb> &mdash; Sirisha Bandla (@SirishaBandla) <a href="https://twitter.com/SirishaBandla/status/1410946704875130882?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2021</a></blockquote> <p> <script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async="" charset="utf-8"></script> </p> <p>She further expressed her gratitude towards the overwhelming number of messages she has received congratulating her.&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">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!</p> &mdash; Sirisha Bandla (@SirishaBandla) <a href="https://twitter.com/SirishaBandla/status/1410947220418011138?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2021</a></blockquote> <p> <script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async="" charset="utf-8"></script> </p> <p>Bandla started working at Virgin Galactic in 2015 and is currently Vice President, Government Affairs and Research Operations of the company. According to an Economic Times report, she was born in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh and grew up in Houston, Texas. She is a graduate in aeronautical engineering from Purdue University and also holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Georgetown University. Prior to working at Virgin Galactic, she worked as an aerospace engineer in Texas, following which she had a job in space policy at the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF).</p> <p>Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister NN Chandrababu Naidu on Friday tweeted two pictures of the VSS crew and said 'Indian-origin women continue to break the proverbial glass ceiling'.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Indian-origin women continue to break the proverbial glass ceiling and prove their mettle. On July 11th, <a href="https://twitter.com/SirishaBandla?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SirishaBandla</a> with Telugu roots is set to fly to space aboard VSS Unity with <a href="https://twitter.com/richardbranson?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RichardBranson</a> and the team marking the dawn of the new space age, making all Indians proud! <a href="https://t.co/oecuztDRBe">pic.twitter.com/oecuztDRBe</a></p> &mdash; N Chandrababu Naidu (@ncbn) <a href="https://twitter.com/ncbn/status/1410884250090414085?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2021</a></blockquote> <p> <script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async="" charset="utf-8"></script> </p>

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