Meet 'Mana-ammayi' Sirisha Bandla, all set to become second Indian-born woman to go to space

Bandla is all set to fly into space on 11 July, along with Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson and four other employees of the company

Amid the political sparring between the two state governments over the Krishna waters, the people of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are united in their excitement about a Telugu girl – Mana ammayi - entering space.

Sirisha Bandla is all set to fly into space on 11 July, along with Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson and four other employees of the aerospace and space travel company. Virgin Galactic made the announcement about the first full crew test flight of its rocket-powered SpaceShipTwo Unity on Thursday, in an apparent bid to beat Amazon's Jeff Bezos by a narrow nine days time.

If all goes to plan next Sunday, Sirisha (34) who hails from Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh, would become the second Indian born woman, after Kalpana Chawla, to soar up into space.

The social media space meanwhile was agog with affectionate references to “Mana-ammayi-Modati Telugu ammayi” (Our girl-First Telugu girl) venturing into the world up above and wishes for safe travels.

“Indian-origin women continue to break the proverbial glass ceiling and prove their mettle. On July 11th, @SirishaBandla with Telugu roots is set to fly to space aboard VSS Unity with@RichardBranson and the team marking the dawn of the new space age, making all Indians proud! - tweeted Chandrababu Naidu, former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.

Sirisha Bandla is the Vice President, Government Affairs and Research Operations at Virgin Galactic. As part of the space flight mission, Bandla will be evaluating the human-tended research experience, using an experiment from the University of Florida that requires several handheld fixation tubes that will be activated at various points in the flight profile.

“I really didn't need to tweet this (news) since my friends flooded the feed yesterday with itI was overwhelmed (in a good way!) by messages of love, unrecognizable capital text, and positivity. Slowly working my way through them...one platform at a time,” Sirisha shared her joy on Twitter, where her profile description is just one word – SPACE.

Sirisha's family – father Muralidhar Bandla, mother Anuradha Bandla have settled in the US when she was a few years old. She reportedly grew up in Houston, Texas and is an engineer from Purdue University. She went on to post graduate from George Washington University.

Back home in Guntur district, her paternal grandfather Dr Bandla Ragaiah, a retired agriculture scientist, is beaming with pride.

“She is my granddaughter! Sirisha was fearless since childhood and had this keen interest in space. I wish her all the best. She grew up with us in Tenali till she was five.” Dr Ragaiah told reporters. Sirisha regularly visits India and her next trip is scheduled for December.