Telugu people are proud of ‘Sirisha Bandla’ who achieved what was expected: Retired IFS Officer Bharat Kumar Enjoy

“proud to be classmate of Shirisha’s father Bandla.Muralidhar” at Bapatla Agricultural College in AP during 1976-80.

Bharat Kumar lauded the achievement of Sirisha, the youngest daughter of Bapatla BSc (Ag) classmate B. Muralidhar. He shared his memories with his classmate Muralidhar. Sirisha is very decisive and has very good leadership qualities,” Bharat Kumar, who retired as CF Ananthapur, AP Forest Department said.During chatting with her father today morning he told about Indian logo on her space suit as follows:

She didn’t do it for attention. She told me few weeks ago that she is going to take a “piece of India” with her to space. I thought she going to take Ganesha picture as she is fascinated by “elephant god”.  I did not imagine that she would ask the company to make an Indian flag patch amidst strict endorsement rules. She is always proud of her roots and she admires ISRO.

Meanwhile, Sirisha Bandla, vice president of government affairs and research operations at Branson’s Virgin Galactic, became the third woman of Indian origin — after NASA astronauts Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams — to fly to space.

When business magnate Richard Branson fulfilled his old dream of flying to space on Sunday, among the five people who accompanied him on the “magical” trip was a 33-year-old woman with roots in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur.

Thereafter, she travelled to Houston to join her parents in the United States. Sirisha’s parents, who are US government employees, are currently posted in India.

“For several years, they used to visit India almost every year, sometimes twice. In Houston, Sirisha was attracted to the activities and news of NASA’s space exploration. She was keen on aeronautics and aerospace since she was very young. I knew that she was destined to do great things,”

Sirisha did her Bachelor’s in aerospace aeronautical engineering from Purdue University, and later did a Masters in Business Administration from George Washington University.