{"id":296116,"date":"2021-07-11T01:48:19","date_gmt":"2021-07-10T22:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/meet-kellie-gerardi-influencer-going-to-space-with-virgin-galactic\/"},"modified":"2021-07-11T01:48:19","modified_gmt":"2021-07-10T22:48:19","slug":"meet-kellie-gerardi-influencer-going-to-space-with-virgin-galactic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/meet-kellie-gerardi-influencer-going-to-space-with-virgin-galactic\/","title":{"rendered":"#Meet Kellie Gerardi, influencer going to space with Virgin Galactic"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Meet Kellie Gerardi, influencer going to space with Virgin Galactic<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Kellie Gerardi is shooting for the stars.<\/p>\n

The researcher, author and social media<\/a> influencer recently learned she will be heading to space on a flight with Virgin Galactic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it would be very app<\/a>ropriate for me to say I never could have dreamed of this, but that wouldn\u2019t be true,\u201d she told The Post. \u201cThe reality is that I have dreamed of this .\u2009.\u2009. every single day in detail for the last decade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though she\u2019s not a professional astronaut engineer, the 32-year-old civilian space enthusiast is heavily involved in commercial space travel<\/a>. To her, the new Space Race is about more than getting billionaires like Virgin Galactic\u2019s Sir Richard Branson, Blue Origin\u2019s Jeff Bezos or SpaceX\u2019s Elon Musk up above the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so grateful for Richard Branson\u2019s vision to democratize access to space,\u201d she said of the billionaire, who is said to be shooting off in a rocket himself Sunday, July 11. \u201c[Humanity] is not just going to be sending engineers to space; we\u2019re going to be sending poets and journalists and communicators and artists and athletes. This is a watershed moment for more people to experience that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The three companies, she added, \u201csprung into action to disrupt the old way of doing business, with an eye toward agility and innovation, and are dramatically lowering costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gerardi will be taking what\u2019s called a suborbital space flight, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Her seat is being funded by her employer, the International Institute for Astronautical Science<\/a>s (IIAS). \u201cYou go up, you enjoy five minutes of microgravity, and you come right back down,\u201d she explained. The whole trip takes about two hours, and she cannot reveal when it will take place.<\/p>\n

\"When
When Gerardi wed husband Steven (seen here at an Explorers Club dinner), astronaut Scott Kelly sent a video toast from space.<\/figcaption>
Peter Domorak<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When she blasts off, Gerardi will be wearing a biomonitoring suit called Astroskin under her gear to monitor how the body reacts to the journey. \u201cThis will be the first time we\u2019re collecting data where someone\u2019s wearing it during launch, re-entry and landing,\u201d she explained. She will also be performing an experiment on how fluids react to a confined environment in microgravity \u2014 and the results could affect how medicine in syringes is administered in space.<\/p>\n

It seems that Gerardi\u2019s interest in space was written in the stars. \u201cI grew up in Jupiter,\u201d she said, with a laugh, of the Florida town \u00a0less than two hours from \u00a0NASA launchpads. \u201cMy window framed this stretch of sky over Cape Canaveral, and from there I saw so many space shuttle flights. It didn\u2019t occur to me at that time that I could be part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For college, Gerardi headed to New York City, where she first attended Barnard, and then graduated from NYU\u2019s Tisch School of the Arts in 2011 with a degree in film. \u201cI thought that when I graduated I was going to go work for NatGeo or the Science Channel,\u201d she said. \u201cThen I realized the entertainment industry wasn\u2019t for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Gerardi
Gerardi will carry a good-luck reminder of daughter Delta V. into space.<\/figcaption>
John Olive<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Instead, she decided to pursue something more adventurous.<\/p>\n

She started out working coat check at the Manhattan headquarters of the Explorers Club, a society dedicated to discoveries of land, sea and air. (Now she\u2019s on the club\u2019s board of directors.) That\u2019s where she met her mentors, Richard and Laetitia Garriott de Cayeux. \u201cRichard was a private astronaut and a civilian video-game<\/a> developer who self-funded his mission to the International Space Station \u2014 he was one of the first [civilians] to do so,\u201d said Gerardi.<\/p>\n

She wanted to do the same. But \u201cI felt like there was no way I could catch up through a natural NASA selection process,\u201d Gerardi admitted of her astronaut dreams. \u201c[Meeting Richard] was the breakthrough moment for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

After that, she worked in communications and business development for a rocket company. As a DC-based crew member and bioastronautics researcher with the IIAS, Gerardi has tested space\u00adsuits, evaluated aircrafts, studied biometrics and even flown in simulated micro- and zero-gravity conditions \u2014 all to help optimize the human experience in space.<\/p>\n

\"Gerardi
Gerardi at her home in Jupiter, Florida.<\/figcaption>
Tolga Kavut<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Still, Gerardi admitted, not coming from a traditional science background has sometimes left her feeling self-conscious about her place in space.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have felt an enormous sense of imposter syndrome in the past,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m never going to be the stereotypical [professional astronaut] who travels to space, but I\u2019m setting out to change that stereotype.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flying out of this world \u201cis the single goal of my life,\u201d said Gerardi. \u201cEvery decision that I\u2019ve made \u2014 career, family \u00a0\u2014 in the last few years has been very explicitly oriented around making this goal happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her husband, Steven, is also up in the air: He works in aerospace and defense. At their wedding, astronaut Scott Kelly sent them a video toast from the International Space Station. \u201cMy daughter has seen all of these photos of Mommy in a spacesuit and she thinks that\u2019s just what mommies do,\u201d Gerardi said of 3-year-old \u00adDelta V. (the V is for Victoria).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Gerardi will be taking her family to space with her in the form of good-luck charms.
\u201cI\u2019ll be carrying a few .\u2009.\u2009. personal mementos in my flight-suit pockets,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ll focus on things that are meaningful to my family, perhaps a photo and the keepsake mission patches that were created for my wedding and for the birth of my daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her social media followers will be tracking her trip \u2014 Gerardi has 137,000 on Instagram<\/a> and 525,000 on TikTok<\/a>. \u201cOver the years, [my accounts] fully transformed, from aspirational to inspirational,\u201d she said, noting that she \u00a0often shares her research in an effort to be more inclusive. Before, \u201cThere was a feeling that I was on the inside instead of the outside. I\u2019m trying to bring more people along.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last fall, she published her memoir \u201cNot Necessarily Rocket Science: A Beginner\u2019s Guide to Life in the Space Age<\/a>,\u201d and in February signed a deal to write children\u2019s books, the first of which will come out later this year. Her main goal, Gerardi said, is to inspire people like her who don\u2019t fit the traditional astronaut mold.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m creating my own path to space,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m really motivated to help broaden access to space for folks who come from different skillsets, like me. This is not a path that\u2019s closed to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Kirsten Fleming<\/em><\/p>\n

Photos: John Olive and Tolga Kavut; Hair: Steven Hoeppner; Makeup: Paolo Orlando<\/em>\n <\/div>\n