Sirisha Bandla : 3rd Indian Woman to Fly to Space
As the race to commercialise space travel tightens, Virgin Galactic takes the lead as Richard Branson flies in his Unity 22 flight to the edge of space.
Uptil now one could go into space only by working in government funded projects for research purposes. However, this is about to change. Millionaire Richard Branson founded a company called Virgin Galactic. The aim of the company is to make travel to space available for all. On 11 July 2021, the Unity 22 - a spaceflight - took off from the Mojave desert in New Mexico. There were 6 members on board including Branson. After takeoff, the spaceflight went 85 kilometers above the surface of Earth. The spaceflight went till the point where space starts. It then stopped there for a few moments, where the crew experienced weightlessness and they could admire the view of the earth.
When they reached the edge of space, Bransons said, “To all you kids down there, I was once a child with a dream. Looking up to the stars. Now, I’m an adult in a spaceship with lots of other wonderful adults looking down to our beautiful, beautiful Earth. Keep dreaming. Anything is possible!" This was the first time that a private company sent a flight to space. The aim was to show people that space tourism is possible for all and completely safe.
After that they all safely landed back on earth. One of the crew members was a 34 year old Indian born woman named Sirisha Bandla. Bandla was born in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh and grew up in Houston, Texas. She started working at Virgin Galactic in 2015. After they returned to earth, Branson carried Indian-American crew member Sirisha Bandla on his shoulders while celebrating their flight to space
She is now the 3rd Indian-born woman to go into space after Kalpana Chawla & Sunita Williams. Branson’s Virgin Galactic is not the only company that is looking to popularise space travel. Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos started a new company called Blue Origin flight, which also aims to start space tourism. Their first spaceflight will take-off on 20th July. It seems like the next step for these companies would be to start selling tickets to the common man to fly to space. We will all have to wait and watch.
