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100th woman in space, Emily Calandrelli, stands up to 'small men' on the internet: 'I should have expected this.'

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The astronaut and MIT engineer's monumental milestone was marred by misogyny: "Instead of being on cloud nine, I’m crying in my seat."

Emily Calandrelli celebrates in front of the Blue Origin capsule after becoming the 100th woman in space.
Astronaut Emily Calandrelli celebrates after becoming the 100th woman in space on Nov. 22, 2024. (Image credit: Blue Origin)

Emily Calandrelli made history on Nov. 22, 2024, when she became the 100th woman to go to space. But thanks to "small men on the internet," the monumental milestone was marred by misogyny, Calandrelli told Live Science.

"This is something that I had been working towards for two decades," the astronaut, MIT engineer, bestselling author, TV host and STEM influencer, told 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!'"

Footage of the historic launch, led by aerospace company Blue Origin, was shared by the company to social media. But it wasn't long before misogynistic, objectifying comments began 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, wrote 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 said that hoards of internet trolls made sexual comments about her voice and reaction, leading Blue Origin to take the video down.

Related: 25 amazing women in science and math

"I didn't expect to see so many people really mocking a reaction to a dream like that," Calandrelli told 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."

However, Calandrelli has not let this deter her from sharing her excitement — she put the video back up on social media in a post that has received over 6 million views across TikTok and Instagram as of Friday (Dec. 6).

"The only thing in this world that I can compare it [the spaceflight] to is literally having my children," she said. "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."

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Spaceflight is still a heavily male dominated industry — according to World Space Flight statistics trackers and United States Airforce Definitions, 714 people have been to space as of Dec. 6, 2024. Only 14% have 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 said. "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 details of Calandrelli's career running up to the launch can be found in Space.com's interview with the 100th woman in space.

This article originally first appeared on Space.com's sister site Live Science.

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Pandora Dewan
Pandora Dewan
Live Science Trending News Editor

Pandora is the trending news editor at Live Science. She is also a science presenter and previously worked as Senior Science and Health Reporter at Newsweek. Pandora holds a Biological Sciences degree from the University of Oxford, where she specialised in biochemistry and molecular biology.

4 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Unclear Engineer
    It is sad that some people like to publicly attack others. But, it seems that is profitable. See "What is rage-baiting and why is it profitable?" https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gp555xy5ro

    That said, the whole article seems to be more about profit and propaganda than actual science or real news. It doesn't really seem that "rare" to be the hundredth person of a particular gender, race, religion or whatever to have done something. So, how is this event really any different from the 99th or the (upcoming?) 101st?

    The only difference that I see is that Ms. Calandrelli is an "astronaut, MIT engineer, bestselling author, TV host and STEM influencer." And, she is using this event, much like a "stunt", to attract the attention she wants for herself and perhaps her "causes".

    And, even this negative type publicity actually helps her personally in that regard, gaining her more attention and substantial empathy, too.

    But, it probably does have a negative effect on those viewers who are female and that she is hoping to influence into going into STEM carriers.

    If we are really serious about creating colonies of humans off-Earth, we are going to need some women who are capable and willing.
    Reply
  • KenFromCranston
    Unclear Engineer said:
    It is sad that some people like to publicly attack others. But, it seems that is profitable. See "What is rage-baiting and why is it profitable?" https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gp555xy5ro
    That said, the whole article seems to be more about profit and propaganda than actual science or real news. It doesn't really seem that "rare" to be the hundredth person of a particular gender, race, religion or whatever to have done something. So, how is this event really any different from the 99th or the (upcoming?) 101st?

    The only difference that I see is that Ms. Calandrelli is an "astronaut, MIT engineer, bestselling author, TV host and STEM influencer." And, she is using this event, much like a "stunt", to attract the attention she wants for herself and perhaps her "causes".

    And, even this negative type publicity actually helps her personally in that regard, gaining her more attention and substantial empathy, too.

    But, it probably does have a negative effect on those viewers who are female and that she is hoping to influence into going into STEM carriers.

    If we are really serious about creating colonies of humans off-Earth, we are going to need some women who are capable and willing.
    Good point especially since there were two women on the flight. How did they determine who was #100 and #101? A coin flip?
    Reply
  • tezzason
    KenFromCranston said:
    Good point especially since there were two women on the flight. How did they determine who was #100 and #101? A coin flip?
    Possibly both figures are incorrect. I suspect #103 or #104 is closer to the mark, insofar as three women Chinese Taikonauts have been into space.: - Liu Yang, Wang Yaping and Wang Haoze. Liu Yang: China's first female taikonaut, who flew on Shenzhou 9 in 2012. Wang Yaping: The second Chinese woman in space, and the first to perform a spacewalk. In 2022, she set the record for the longest stay in space by a Chinese woman at 197 days. Wang Haoze: China's first civilian female astronaut, who flew on Shenzhou-19 to the Tiangong space station. Wang is a nuclear rocket scientist who designed and developed unconventional rocket engines
    Reply
  • COLGeek
    I think the number is largely irrelevant. She was attacked more for being a she and how she responded.

    To attack her was wrong and disrespectful. Period.
    Reply