She is also helps run the Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship Program, a program for undergrad and graduate students to gain access to internships, mentorship, and a network in the commercial space industry. Sirisha serves on the Board of American Society for Gravitational and Space Research, American Astronautical Society, and the Future Space Leaders Foundation. Before CSF, she worked as an aerospace engineer designing components for advanced aircraft at L-3 Communications in Greenville, Texas. At CSF, Sirisha worked on various policies with the aim to promote and enable the then emerging commercial space industry. Previously, Sirisha served as the Associate Director for the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, an industry association of commercial spaceflight companies.
In this role, Sirisha oversees legislative, regulatory, and government business priorities for the company. Sirisha Bandla currently works as the Vice President of Government Affairs at Virgin Galactic. She also has been a champion throughout her career for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Women in Aerospace (WIA), being a leader-both internally through Women in Network (WIN) and externally-through numerous industry groups such as WIA and the California Assembly task force on STEM, as well as working with local junior high and high schools. She is widely known in the aerospace community and has held leadership roles in numerous industry organizations, including AIAA, the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration (CDSE), Powerhouse Science Center, and the SLS/Orion industry coalition. Throughout her career she worked with DoD, NASA, and commercial customers on efforts to advance launch and in-space propulsion and materials and manufacturing technologies. Some of her key accomplishments include managing the Atlas V solid rocket motor program that developed and qualified the solid rockets that powered the Pluto New Horizons Mission leading the Electric Propulsion Development Organization responsible for developing Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) electric propulsion that revolutionized satellite propulsion and delivery of the nation’s next-generation human space propulsion systems such as the Orion and RS25 for SLS. She worked on many satellite, spacecraft and launch vehicle propulsion programs, always working to advance the state of the art of propulsion technology while maintaining focus on mission success. Later, in the company’s Space business area, she played pivotal strategy, capture, and program management roles prior to moving into executive management.
She was recognized at Aerojet, GenCorp, and the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) office for her contributions to first-generation missile defense systems.
Many of the technologies pioneered on those systems are still in use in today’s missile defense systems. She specialized in system design and system architectures and was the Chief Systems Engineer on several first-generation missile defense systems such as the Advanced Liquid Axial Stage (ALAS) and Brilliant Pebbles. Julie joined Aerojet Rocketdyne in 1981 as a systems engineer. In 2019, she retired from Aerojet Rocketdyne as the vice president of the Space and Launch Propulsion Business Unit. Julie Van Kleeck is the Space Domain Lead and the ASCEND Executive Producer at AIAA.
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