The Indian-Origin Aeronautical Engineer To Fly Into Space
There are dreamers and then there are realists. Aeronautical engineer Sirisha Bandla is a bit of both. In July 2021, Bandla realised her long-held dream by securing her place among the five passengers on Unity 22, the world’s first fully crewed suborbital test flight. On July 11th, she onboarded Virgin Galactic’s spaceship to make a journey to the edge of space. It was a historic mission that served as a test flight for future commercial passenger flights by Virgin Galactic. Bandla became the third Indian-origin woman after Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams to fly into space. “So for women to see themselves in me, either from a connection of where we grew up, how we look, our culture, that is powerful,” Bandla said in an interview after the successful mission.
As a child, she harboured the dream of becoming an astronaut for the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). For years, she was sure that the space was her calling until her hopes were quashed. Owing to her poor eyesight, Bandla could not meet the requirements to become a NASA pilot or an astronaut. Undeterred, she took the rejection as a redirection. Remaining steadfast to her ambition, Bandla took an unconventional way to go to space. She opted for a Bachelor of Science degree from the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University. In 2015, she joined Virgin Galactic as a government affairs manager and then rose through the ranks. She is now the Vice President of Government Affairs at the company.
Power Move
In July 2021, Bandla joined billionaire Richard Branson and four others on board Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity to make a journey to the edge of space. They made it to an altitude of about 88 kilometres over the New Mexico desert and could see the curvature of the Earth. In the 1.5-hour long mission, the entire crew experienced a few moments of weightlessness in space before making a descent back to Earth. During the flight, Bandla served as one of the mission specialists who evaluated various experiences that have been promised by Virgin Galactic to its future customers. Many of these customers had already reserved trips to space before the test run at USD 250,000 a seat. Bandla is a role model and proof that we can achieve everything that we dream for, irrespective of the hurdles and the challenges. She is also a shining example for everyone who thinks that women can’t do well in science and related fields.
The POPxo Power Women List is an annual list that celebrates incredible Indian women from diverse domains who make power moves that have a real impact. With The POPxo Power Women List 2022, we celebrate 22 phenomenal women. To see the entire list, click here.
