Emily Calandrelli, the aerospace engineer also known on social media as “The Space Gal,” is officially the 100th woman to travel in space. On Nov. 22, Calandrelli was aboard the NS-28 suborbital mission conducted on the New Shepard rocket of Blue Origin, the commercial space travel company founded by Jeff Bezos. The flight, which reached a maximum altitude of 106 mile–crossing the Kármán line considered the boundary of space– took off and landed at the company’s Culberson County facility located in West Texas.
During the ten-minute mission, Calandrelli was joined by Marc and Sharon Hagle, a couple who participated in a Blue Origin mission for the second time; Austin Litteral, whose participation was sponsored by Whatnot, a live streaming shopping platform; J.D. Russell, former game warden and entrepreneur; and Hank Wolfond, CEO of a Canadian investment company.
Emily Calandrelli is also a well-known TV host and author for science programs and has received three Emmy nominations for the TV program Xploration Outer Space. She has always worked with the goal of inspiring passion and interest in STEM disciplines, or Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, to boys and young women of the next generation. Her trip, she said about flying with Blue Origin, crowned her years of study in aerospace engineering and her “mission to engage girls in science and technology.” Among the personal items she took with her on the suborbital flight was a photomontage of the 99 women who have flown before her in space, to remind her of how important their contributions to the field have been.
