Emily Calandrelli becomes first female WV astronaut in outer space
By Stephen Baldwin, RealWV
Growing up in the hills of West Virginia, you can see the stars in all their glory. Unimpinged by the light pollution that blocks star-gazing in urban settings.
Our mawmaws and pawpaws teach us to spot the Milky Way, follow Orion’s belt, and respect the night sky for all its magic and mystery. They teach us that anything is possible if we just reach for the stars.
For Emily Calandrelli, a native of Morgantown, that dream came true over the weekend when she became the first female astronaut from West Virginia to enter outer space.
“How lucky I am!” she said on social media after landing back safely on earth, greeted by her husband and children.
Known as “The Space Gal” for her work as a children’s television educator, Calandrelli is the real deal. After attending Morgantown High School, she graduated from West Virginia University with a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering and Mechanical Science. She landed an internship with NASA during college and then went on to earn a master’s degree from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Technology and Policy.
Since then, the 37-year old Mountaineer has become a television show host, author, lecturer, engineer, and now…astronaut.
Calandrelli made the trip to outer space with Blue Origin, the Jeff Bezos space tourism program which has now made nine flights. The flight only lasted about ten minutes, but the impact will last a lifetime.
“I kept saying, ‘That’s our planet!’” Calandrelli shared. “It was the same feeling I got when my kids were born, and I was like, ‘That’s my baby! That’s my baby!’ I had that same feeling where I’m seeing it for the first time, and it was beautiful.”
While it was the thrill of a lifetime as Calandrelli became the 100th woman to ever enter outer space, including the first from West Virginia, she was also relieved to return home safely.
“We were full of emotion because we knew the risk,” she said. “We knew there was the possibility of an anomaly. Tom (her husband) was more nervous than he’s ever been about anything and so that first hug was the celebration that we’re still here. Our love, our life, our family is safe and secure.”
Spoken like the true West Virginian that she is.
Calandrelli also took ten items with her on the trip. The items were:
- A painting of her daughter as an astronaut
- Her dad’s college ring
- Petri dishes with plant seedlings and 100,000 Fast Plant seeds to distribute to students
- A roll of stickers that she will put on signed books that will be sent out to children
- Pins, brooches, and cufflinks that all have different meanings, including some with West Virginia state flags
- Meteorites that fell from Russia in 1947
- Pearls to give to important women in her life
- Star charms to give to little girls
- Photos of the 99 women who went to space before her
“I will gift (the WV state flag pins) to the West Virginians in my life who helped get me to where I am today,” Calandrelli said.
She plans to speak about her experience at conferences and events in the coming weeks and months.
Emily’s Wonder Lab is available for streaming on Netflix.
