Indian-origin aeronautical engineer Sirisha Bandla will activate a Nasa-supported plant experiment at critical data-collection stages during Virgin Galactic’s first fully crewed spaceflight, scheduled to take off from New Mexico on July 11. The US space agency on Saturday said that Bandla, vice president of government affairs and research operations at Virgin Galactic, will operate the experiment on the “Unity 22” flight on behalf of co-investigators from the University of Florida. As part of the experiment, Bandla will activate three plant-filled tubes to release a preservative at critical data-collection stages - at standard Earth’s gravitational force before the rocket boost, just before entering microgravity, and after the conclusion of microgravity. The university researchers have flown similar experiments on suborbital flights in the past. The researchers found that plants behave quite differently in space compared to on the ground.

Source: Hindustan Times July 10, 2021 12:22 UTC