India celebrates Sirisha Bandla's historic flight to space aboard Virgin Galactic

SIRISHA BANDLA made history on Sunday (11) when she flew to the edge of space on billionaire Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic rocket plane.

She became the second woman from India to go to space after Kalpana Chawla, who died when the Columbia Space Shuttle's crash in 2013.

Sir Richard called the trip the "experience of a lifetime", as the Virgin Galactic rocket flew above New Mexico in the US before returning to Earth an hour later.

Bandla developed an early interest in space as she currently works as the vice president of government affairs for Virgin Galactic, and was part of the five-member crew on board of the rocket.

"From the beginning, she was fascinated towards the sky, looking at the sky, space, how to enter space and what is there," her grandfather had earlier told Reuters.

Bandla, who developed an early interest in space, works as the vice president of government affairs for Virgin Galactic.

Her grandfather told Reuters that "from the beginning, she was fascinated towards the sky, looking at the sky, space, how to enter space and what is there".

Meanwhile, Indians around the world are celebrating this feat achieved by Bandla. Her historic trip has created quite a buzz in India, especially in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh where she was born in the Guntur district.

Upon her return from the trip, she was flooded with messages on social from India including political leaders.

India's vice president Venkaiah Naidu tweeted that "her achievement will motivate many more young girls in India and abroad to take up challenging careers".

Sunday's trip saw the UK entrepreneur beat Amazon's Jeff Bezos and SpaceX's Elon Musk, to be the first in of the new space tourism pioneers to try out their own vehicles.

The rocket plane reached a height of 85km (282,000ft; 53 miles) above Earth as Sir Richard was accompanied by accompanied by pilots Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci and three Galactic employees, including Beth Moses, Colin Bennett and Bandla.

"I have dreamt of this moment since I was a kid, but honestly nothing can prepare you for the view of Earth from space," he said in a press conference following the flight. "The whole thing was just magical."

According to BBC, Sir Richard first announced his intention to make a space plane in 2004, with the belief he could start a commercial service by 2007. But technical difficulties, including a fatal crash during a development flight in 2014, delayed the space project.