SPACE DREAM: BANDLA JOINS BRANSON MISSION
JOINING BRANSON ON MAIDEN TRIP WAS DREAM COME TRUE, SAYS RESEARCHER SIRISHA BANDLA
AERONAUTICAL engineer Sirisha Bandla became the third Indian American woman to fly into space last Sunday (11) when she joined British billionaire Sir Richard Branson on Virgin Galactic’s first fully-crewed successful suborbital test flight.
Bandla, 34, said it was an “incredible and a life-changing experience” to see earth from space during her maiden trip, which was broadcast live.
She joined Branson and four others on board Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Unity to make a journey to the edge of space from New Mexico. They reached an altitude of about 88 km over the New Mexico desert, enough to see the curvature of the earth. The crew experienced a few minutes of weightlessness before making a gliding descent back to earth.
“I am kind of still up there, but it’s so great to be here. I was trying to think about a better word than incredible, but that is the only word that can come to my mind... Seeing the view of earth is so lifechanging, but also the boost of the rocket motor kicking in.
“The whole trip to space and back is just amazing,” Bandla told reporters.
She described the moment as emotional, saying: “I have been dreaming of going to space since I was young and literally it is a dream come true.”
Branson also called it “an experience of a lifetime”.
“Nothing can prepare you for the view of earth from space,” said Branson, who became the first billionaire in the world to travel into space.
After landing back in New Mexico, he said this was the beginning of a “new space age”.
“Welcome to the dawn of a new space age,” he tweeted.
The primary objective for Unity 22 was to serve as a test flight for future commercial passenger flights by Virgin Galactic.
Bandla, who was born in Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh in south India, was brought up in Houston, Texas. She was astronaut No 004 and her flight role was researcher experience. The other crew members were two pilots and three other crewmates, including Branson, who turns 71 in a week.
She became the third Indian-origin woman to fly into space after Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams.
Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma is the only Indian citizen to travel in space. The former Indian Air Force pilot flew aboard Soyuz T-11 on April 3, 1984, as part of the Soviet Interkosmos programme.
Bandla’s family moved to the US when she was four and she graduated with a bachelor of science degree from the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University in 2011. She finished her master of business administration degree from George Washington University in 2015.
She wanted to be an astronaut for the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). However, her poor eyesight meant she could not meet the requirements to become a pilot or an astronaut, she said.
When she was at Purdue University, a professor told her about an opportunity in the field of commercial space flights.
“I have wanted to be an astronaut, but I wasn’t able to go in the traditional NASA role. I took a very unconventional way to go to space and I do believe that a lot of people are going to be able to experience this and that’s why we are here,” she said.
Virgin Galactic – the business Branson started in 2004 – aims to fly private citizens to the edge of space.
The trips are designed to permit passengers to experience three to four minutes of weightlessness and observe the curvature of earth. Branson had earlier said that the entire flight would be about 90 minutes long and could be broadly divided into four portions – ascent up to launch position, release, flight to space and glide back to earth for a runway landing at Spaceport America.
The Virgin Galactic carrier can launch up to eight people (two pilots and six passengers) on the Unity 22 flight, but last Sunday there were only six occupants (two pilots and four passengers).
The four mission specialists evaluated different experiences that Virgin Galactic has promised its future customers, many of whom have already reserved trips to space with the company at $250,000 (£180,104) a seat.
Bandla tested the experience of performing experiments aboard Unity during different phases of the flight, including the weightless period.
This was the 22nd flight of Unity, but only its fourth launch to space.
VSS Unity is the company’s second SpaceShipTwo after the first, VSS Enterprise, broke apart during a 2014 test flight, killing one pilot and seriously injuring another. Virgin Galactic has since made numerous safety upgrades to prevent such an accident from happening again.