Telugu girl Sirisha Bandla 3rd woman to fly into space

Sirisha Bandla, a 34-year-old aeronautical engineer from Andhra Pradesh, became the third Indian-origin woman to fly into space with her Virgin Galactic's flight on Sunday.

Sirisha, who was born in Guntur, and brought up in Houston, Texas, joined Richard Branson, and five others on board Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Unity to make the journey to the edge of space from New Mexico.

"I am so incredibly honoured to be a part of the amazing crew of #Unity22, and to be a part of a company whose mission is to make space available to all," she tweeted.

Sirisha will be astronaut No 004 and her flight role will be Researcher Experience, according to her profile on Virgin Galactic. She will become the third Indian-origin woman to fly into space after Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams.