From Guntur To Space: An Indian Woman Astronaut's Story
NDTV
Sirisha Bandla, 34, followed her dream as she grew up in the United States.
Sirisha Bandla remembers the moment she learnt that she was fascinated by space. It was as a little girl, growing up in Andhra Pradesh's Guntur district.
"One of my earliest memories is that of the power outages, the blackouts. I remember sleeping on my grandparents' roof top. I don't ever remember seeing stars so bright. When there is no pollution, they seem like they are almost on your face. I think that is what really planted the seeds, seeing stars in India so bright it made me curious - what is out there? I wanted to be among them," she told NDTV.
Ms Bandla, 34, followed her dream as she grew up in the United States. She couldn't be a NASA astronaut due to poor eyesight - and took the engineering route instead. The young aerospace engineer was part of the team that went up with Sir Richard Branson in the first-ever space flight of the billionaire's Virgin Galactic last July.
The ride to almost 90 km above the earth had a profound effect on her.
