[4][5][6] Bandla was born into a Telugu Hindu[citation needed] family in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, India.

[5] On Sunday 11 July 2021 Bandla flew on the Virgin Galactic Unity 22 test flight alongside Sir Richard Branson, Dave Mackay, Michael Masucci, Beth Moses, Colin Bennett.

The rocket plane flew 85 km (53 mi) above Earth,[4] thereby qualifying the crew as FAA commercial astronauts.

[14] During the flight, Bandla conducted an experiment from the University of Florida to investigate how plants react to the change in gravity.

Unity 22, being the first fully crewed test flight for Virgin Galactic, qualified Sirisha to be awarded commercial astronaut wings by the Federal Aviation Authority.