Female astronaut Emily Calandrelli became the center of a spate of hateful and sexist comments after posting a video on social media describing her awe when seeing Earth from space, leading the aerospace company that organized the flight to take down the video.
Calandrelli, an influential MIT aeronautical engineer, became the 100th woman to travel into space when she joined a group of six space tourists on a November 22nd flight by Blue Origin, the aerospace company owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos. Blue Origin took down the original, 10-minute video due to the host of negative comments.
“I didn’t expect to see so much space, and I kept saying that’s our planet! That’s our planet! It was the same feeling I got when my kids were born and I got like, ‘That’s my baby!'” Calandrelli said in the video. It wasn’t long before her post got flooded with comments that the astronaut said sexualized her reaction “because being a woman achieving something monumental means expecting men to try to humiliate her.”
Calandrelli said the reactions made her angry and sad yet, in an Instagram post she wrote she refuses to apologize or feel weird about her reaction, adding she refuses “to give much time to small men on the internet.”
“I feel experiences in my soul. It’s a trait I got from my father,” she said. “We feel every emotion deeply and what a beautiful way that is to experience life. This joy is tattooed on my heart,” the female astronaut said.
As a note to her 880,000 Instagram followers regarding the video, Calandrelli said “When I can, I’ll reshare it myself with all of you.”
The female astronaut who caused a stir on the internet
Emily Calandrelli has been passionate about space exploration and education for years and has made significant contributions to space science and education. As an advocate for women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), she is reaching out through social media, public appearances and television interviews to millions of girls interested in following her footsteps. She also hosts a television show on Netflix called “Emily’s Wonder Lab” and is affectionately known as “The Space Gal.”
At 37, she has been making waves in the space industry since earning a degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering and later a master’s from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Her expertise landed her jobs with leading space organizations, including NASA and she flew aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket in 2021 during its second crewed mission into space. She is also a NYTimes bestselling author and her television work has been nominated for an Emmy Award.
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