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Emily Calandrelli made history on Nov. 22, 2024, when she ended up being the 100th female to go to area. Thanks to “small men on the internet,” the significant turning point was ruined by misogyny, Calandrelli informed Live Science.
“This is something that I had been working towards for two decades,” the astronaut, MIT engineer, bestselling author, television host and STEM influencer, informed Live Science. “It’s been a dream of mine for the longest time and in every moment leading up to me being in space I was nervous that it wasn’t actually going to happen. Then once we got into space, all of these emotions came welling up, like ‘I did it. I’m here. I’m in space!'”
Video of the historical launch, led by aerospace business Blue Origin, was shared by the business to social networks. It wasn’t long before misogynistic, objectifying remarks started to flood in.
“This all happened as I was flying home after experiencing the most perfect, wonderful dream-achieving experience of my life,” Calandrelli, of West Virginia, composed in a post on Instagram. “Instead of being on cloud nine, I’m crying in my seat staring out the window. Because of course this happened. Of course I should have expected this.”
In the post, she stated that stockpiles of web giants made sexual remarks about her voice and response, leading Blue Origin to take the video down.
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“I didn’t expect to see so many people really mocking a reaction to a dream like that,” Calandrelli informed Live Science. “I got to experience something that only 100 women in history have seen, and 700 humans in the history of this planet, out of 100 billion humans that have ever lived — of course I’m going to have a pretty extreme reaction to that.”
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Calandrelli has not let this discourage her from sharing her enjoyment– she put the video back up on social media in a post that has actually gotten over 6 million views throughout TikTok and Instagram since Friday (Dec. 6).
“The only thing in this world that I can compare it [the spaceflight] to is literally having my children,” she stated. “I’d always dreamed of being a mom and you have this baby in your belly for nine months. You love it, you see it on the sonogram, and then you finally get to meet them.”
Spaceflight is still a greatly male controlled market — according to World Space Flight stats trackers and United States Airforce Definitions, 714 individuals have actually been to area since Dec. 6, 2024. Just 14% have actually been female.
“For these big dreams, you really have to want them. They’re not just going to come to you, you have to fight for them. You have to risk a lot of things for them,” Calandrelli stated. “You have to sacrifice certain things. And I think that grit and that resilience to failure is one of the best life skills that anyone can learn.”
More information of Calandrelli’s profession adding to the launch can be discovered on Live Science’s sibling website, Space.com.
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