An incredible, life-changing experience, says Sirisha

Houston: INDIAN-AMERICAN astronaut Sirisha Bandla says it was an "incredible" and a "life-changing" experience to see the Earth from space during her maiden trip on Virgin Galactic's first fully-crewed suborbital test flight and hopes the price tag for space travel will come down in future.

Bandla, a 34-year-old aeronautical engineer on Sunday joined British billionaire Richard Branson and four others on board Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Unity to make a journey to the edge of space from the US State of New Mexico. They reached an altitude of about 88 kilometres 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 glad 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 life-changing but also the boost the rocket motor kicking in. The whole trip to space and back is just amazing, Bandla told the NBC News in an interview. Bandla described the moment as emotional and said, "I have been dreaming of going to space since I was young and literally it is a dream come true," she said. "I have wanted to be an astronaut but I wasn't able to go in the traditional National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) role and 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.

Bandla's poor eyesight could not meet the requirements to become a pilot or an astronaut for NASA. On being asked if this was just a joyride for rich people, she said "As Virgin Galactic builds up...this is VSS Unity's ride to space today but we have got two more spaceships in the manufacture and we hope the cost would come down."

Bandla, who was born in Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh and brought up in Houston, was astronaut No 004 and her flight role was Researcher Experience. The other crew members were two pilots and three other crewmates, including billionaire 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, part of the Soviet Interkosmos programme. Bandla moved to the US when she was 4-year-old and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University in 2011.

"She always dreamed of soaring into sky"

Guntur (AP): For Indian-American astronaut Sirisa Bandla, the sky was not the limit as her dreams always remained soaring into the galaxy.

Bandla, a 34-year-old aeronautical engineer on Sunday joined British billionaire Richard Branson and four others on board Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Unity to make a journey to the edge of space from the US state of New Mexico.

"As a child, her gaze was always perched on the sky, the stars, the aeroplanes and space. Such was her fascination that it ultimately led her into space and it is a great achievement for her," her paternal grandfather Bandla Ragaiah said.

As a toddler, she was under Ragaiah's care in Hyderabad (in then undivided AP) as her parents settled in the US. For some time, she was also with her maternal grandparents at Chirala in Andhra Pradesh.

"We are very delighted that she fulfilled her dream and a long-felt desire. It's a great achievement and we are proud of her," Ragaiah told PTI over phone on Monday.

Sirisha, the first woman of Telugu origin to venture into space, left for the US at the age of four, along with her elder sister Pratyusha to join their parents.

Her father Muralidhar is an agricultural scientist, like his father, and is now placed in the US Embassy in New Delhi.