Life-changing moment: Indian-American astronaut Sirisha Bandla on space trip

Houston, July 12

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.

“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. The whole trip to space and back is just amazing,” Bandla said in an interview. — PTI