This American astronaut to be second Indian-born woman to fly into space after Kalpana Chawla

Indian-born American Sirisha Bandla will be joining Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson VSS Unity along with a crew will be flying into space on July 11 from New Mexico. The 34-year-old aeronautical engineer, who graduated from Purdue University, will be the second Indian-American woman to go into space after Kalpana Chawla.

"I am so incredibly honored 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," Bandla tweeted along with a video of the crew.

The vice president of government affairs and research operations at Virgin Galantic Bandla's role will be that of a researcher experience as astronaut No 4. Reports suggest that Sirisha Bandla was born in Andhra Pradesh's Guntur and grew up in Houston, Texas.

Sharing the news along with two pictures on his twitter handle, former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister NN Chandrababu Naidu said, ''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!''

Bandla holds an MBA degree from Georgetown University and began her career at Virgin Galactic in 2015. She has worked for a space policy job at the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) and L-3 Communications in Greenville, Texas, as an aerospace engineer.