EMILY Calandrelli could barely contain her delight about what was to come.
The YouTube host and Netflix show star, known on social media as Space Gal, sat down with The U.S Sun at MIT, her alma mata, to talk about her forthcoming November 22 trip to space aboard one of Amazon owner Jeff Bezos’ rockets.
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ALIEN FEARS
Emily talked about “inspiring” young girls who look up to her and “dreaming of becoming astronauts” ahead of becoming the 100th woman to go into space.
She also shared the fears of her children.
“My daughter, who’s five, is worried about aliens taking me in space,” she said to The U.S. Sun with a smile.
Predictably, the experience of looking down upon earth – even though it was just for five unforgettable minutes – was startling.
“I didn’t expect to see so much space, and I kept saying that’s our planet! That’s our planet!” she exclaimed on social media afterwards.
“It was the same feeling I got when my kids were born, and I was like, ‘That’s my baby!’”
It was mindblowing – as was the reaction from some internet trolls who somehow thought it was a good idea to ridicule her for likening it to childbirth.
Such was the veracity of the comments below the video that Blue Origin opted to remove her footage from their social media accounts.
“I feel experiences in my soul. It’s a trait I got from my father,” she said in response to the horrible outside noise. “We feel every emotion deeply and what a beautiful way that is to experience life. This joy is tattooed on my heart.
“I will not apologize or feel weird about my reaction. It’s wholly mine, and I love it.”
Emily was sponsored by 30 companies, contributing an estimated $1.2 million for the ticket to join six other outer space enthusiasts for the 12-minute trip.
It was the ninth time Blue Origin’s New Shepherd spacecraft had flown with humans onboard.
The unexpected backlash was unfortunate, but nothing will ever detract from her moment in the stars.
EXCITING FUTURE
“For me, it’s a way to fulfill personal and professional goals,” she said after helping judge Red Bull’s Basement innovation competition at MIT.
Blue Origin—unlike Elon Musk’s Space X—is a suborbital flight. It blasts up to 62 miles, and then the rocket enters space for five minutes.
The entire trip – from launch to landing – lasts 720 seconds.
Meanwhile, SpaceX uses orbital vehicles like Falcon 9, designed to go to the International Space Station. The mission rocket sometimes remains in space for extended periods, from days to weeks.
Emily hopes travel into the great unknown will be normalized within the next decade.
She believes this is “a new era of space exploration,” with private companies like Blue Origin “revolutionizing space travel.”
“They’ve made rockets reusable, lowering costs and allowing regular people to buy tickets to space,” she said. “Over the next 10 years, we’ll see the cost of space tourism go down with economies of scale.”
Musk has long voiced his desire to occupy Mars, and although Emily thinks “true space travel” to other planets and the moon will take longer to become the norm, the times are changing.
“In the future,” she said, “experiences like mine might become as common as climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.”
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