This month we met with our favorite Aerospace icon, Kellie Gerardi. Kellie is officially an aerospace and defense strategist who has supported a number of commercial spaceflight companies, NGO’s, and government agencies to accelerate and communicate the progress of the commercial spaceflight industry. Her work reaching the skies means she is a Scientist-Astronaut Candidate with Project PoSSUM (Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere), the first suborbital crewed research program, studying the upper atmosphere and how it relates to our understanding of global climate change. Kellie is a dedicated mentor to women in STEM, and committed to improving diversity and equal representation in the space and technology sectors.
How did you first get interested in space science? (What sparked your interest, at what age, how did you sustain it)
Growing up near the Space Coast in Florida, I had a front-row seat to our nation’s space program. Shuttle launches, while always exciting, were relatively normal! That really solidified my early belief that going to space myself would not be a question of “if”, but “when”. I graduated from college the same year that the Shuttle Program retired, and it forced me to re-evaluated how I wanted to be involved in human spaceflight, and where I wanted to make an impact. I was introduced to the commercial spaceflight industry, and their mission of democratizing access to space and expanding Earth’s economic sphere really resonated with me. I’ve been working in this industry ever since!
What’s one thing people don’t know about your training to become an astronaut?
As a Scientist-Astronaut Candidate with Project PoSSUM (Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere), I’ve trained for a very specific suborbital science mission, which is to conduct research on noctilucent clouds in the upper mesosphere. These mysterious ice clouds are highest clouds in Earth’s atmosphere, and they’re important to research because they’ve been implicated as potentially sensitive indicators of climate change.
Something most people don’t know is that I originally had to postpone my training due to pregnancy. I ended up completing everything during my maternity leave while my infant daughter stayed with my parents, and I wore Spanx under my flight suit!
Your daughter has a very interesting name! How did you choose it and what impact do you hope it will have on her?
My daughter’s name, Delta Victoria, is a deeply geeky rocket science reference. It’s a play on “Delta-v” (∆v), which translates literally to change in velocity. Put simply, it’s a measurement of the effort required for a rocket to change from one trajectory to another. Of course I would be delighted if Delta develops an interest in space, but even if she pursues a different path, she’ll at least have a deep familiarity with the industry. The most important thing to me, and the area in which I hope to lead by example, is showing her that she’s capable of following her passions and dreams, whatever those may be.
Do you feel Women face challenges in your sector? If so, how can we overcome it?
As with many male-dominated industries, women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) can be faced with challenges of both exposure and experience, which tend to go hand in hand. A lack of early exposure to STEM subjects can mean less women choosing degrees and careers in this field, which translates to a pretty homogenous hiring pipeline in the industry. And that homogenous workforce can adversely affect your experience in the industry, as you find yourself woefully underrepresented in your work environment. I think we have work to do at both ends: intervening early and often with opportunities for young women and underrepresented groups to engage and gain experience with STEM, and challenging our industry to focus on building diverse and inclusive workforces. This is especially critical for the space industry; we like to talk about engineering a future that will affect the entirety of our species, so that can’t be an all-white male conversation.
What’s one thing you are looking forward to in the short term? In the next 5–10 years?
In the short-term, I’m looking forward to restoring America’s ability to launch people to space from US soil. Since the retirement of the Shuttle program, we’ve been purchasing seats from the Russians in order to send our astronauts to the International Space Station, hitching a ride on their Soyuz rockets. SpaceX is currently partnered with NASA to supply cargo delivery to the ISS, and they’ll soon start transporting NASA astronauts, too! This is many years in the making, and an incredibly powerful illustration of the accelerated progress we can achieve through public-private partnership.
In the longer-term, I’m looking forward to see a return to the Moon and eventually Mars. It’s been far too long since we’ve journeyed beyond low Earth orbit, and there’s an entire universe waiting to be explored.
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