A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Emily Calandrelli is the 100th woman to venture into space. She took a ride aboard a spaceship from Jeff Bezos' aerospace company, Blue Origin. She's here now to discuss the adventure. So, Emily, my goodness, you lucky duck, how did you get this opportunity to go up there into space? Tell us, I mean, from the moment it became a thing.
EMILY CALANDRELLI: Yes. Oh, my gosh. I mean, this has been a dream a couple of decades in the making. And while a lot of people who board this flight are billionaires and, you know, the rich and famous, I had to work with about 20 to 30 partners to sponsor my trip.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, so when you were picked, and you knew this was going to happen, what did you do? How - did you have to do anything special to prepare?
CALANDRELLI: You know, there wasn't too much because we live in this crazy era of space exploration where we have these autonomous reusable rockets. Really, three days' worth of training, and that's it. But for me, the real prep came into - how do I want to leverage this opportunity to benefit communities that maybe don't often get a spotlight shown on them? I'm from West Virginia and so I used the mission to shine a spotlight on small businesses in West Virginia. And now I feel like my work really begins. And so I get to now bring this experience, this dream, to as many kids as possible.
MARTÍNEZ: I remember watching "The Right Stuff" when I was a kid, and it, you know, it seemed like it took those guys a long time to get ready for space, and that's amazing that it's three days. And I guess that's part of the amazing part of this whole thing - right? - is that this is possible for anyone, right?
CALANDRELLI: This is possible for anyone. I mean, just like any technology that was built 70 years ago, we have improved. We've made it better and easier for more people to experience it and to use it. You know, we experienced 5gs on the way down. It felt like my face was melting off. It was the scariest thing I've ever done. But even so, the ability to experience those things was not as hard as one might expect.
MARTÍNEZ: So what did it look like when you were up there? I mean, what did you do?
CALANDRELLI: Oh, my God. I, like - I had an out-of-body experience. The only thing that I can compare it to was giving birth to a child, where, like, you know something, you know that you've loved something for a long time, but then it's here, and you're holding it, and you're - it's like you are seeing it for the very first time with your eyes, and that is what it felt like seeing the earth from above. I just kept saying, that's our planet.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah.
CALANDRELLI: Oh, my God, that's our planet. And it was like your eyes are seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time or the ocean for the first time, and you're seeing new contrast, new details, new colors that you've never seen before. It was so wonderfully overwhelming.
MARTÍNEZ: Blue Origin posted a video on social media of Calandrelli's reaction to seeing Earth from space.
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CALANDRELLI: Oh, my goodness. That's our planet.
MARTÍNEZ: Internet trolls made sexist comments, and the video was later taken down. But Calandrelli reposted the original video on her social media page. So I asked her why.
CALANDRELLI: This was my unbridled joy. This was my natural reaction to achieving a dream that I'd hoped for and dreamed about for two decades. And I wanted to share that because so often I feel like we are criticizing women's emotions and joys, things that are completely valid and normal. And I think it comes from a space where so many people, especially men, don't feel safe to express their emotions. And so when they see it in others, it feels irritating or confusing, and so they have to comment on it in some particular way, but I think that so many people can relate to that feeling.
MARTÍNEZ: Emily Calandrelli is an MIT engineer and TV host known as Space Gal. She just became the 100th woman to go to space. Emily, congratulations. Thanks a lot.
CALANDRELLI: Thank you so much.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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