Sirisha Bandla

Early life and education

Sirisha Bandla, an American aeronautical engineer and commercial astronaut, was born in 1988 to a Telugu Hindu family in Andhra Pradesh, India. She spent her early years between her grandparents' homes in Hyderabad and Tenali before moving to Houston with her parents. She earned a bachelor's in aeronautical engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from George Washington University.

Career

Bandla hoped to become a NASA astronaut but was ruled out on medical grounds due to her eyesight. She previously worked for the Commercial Spaceflight Federation as an aerospace engineer with Matthew Isakowitz. She later co-founded the Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship in his honor. Bandla joined Virgin Galactic in 2015, where she works as the vice president of government affairs.

On Sunday 11 July 2021, Bandla flew on the Virgin Galactic Unity 22 test flight alongside Sir Richard Branson, Dave Mackay, Michael Masucci, Beth Moses, and Colin Bennett. The rocket plane flew 85 km above Earth, thereby qualifying the crew as FAA commercial astronauts. During the flight, Bandla conducted an experiment from the University of Florida to investigate how plants react to the change in gravity. About her flight, Bandla's grandfather, Dr. Bandla Ragaiah, said: 'From a very young age she had this ambition to explore the sky, the moon, and the stars.

Sirisha had set her eyes on space, and I am not at all surprised that she is all set to realise her dream.' During her spaceflight, she reached a height of 89.9 km above the Earth's surface. Unity 22, being the first fully crewed test flight for Virgin Galactic, qualified Sirisha to be awarded commercial astronaut wings by the Federal Aviation Authority. In June 2025, she retired from her role at Virgin Galactic. She was honored as one of the BBC 100 Women in December 2022.