Emily Calandrelli

Early life and education

Emily Calandrelli, an American engineer and science communicator, grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia. She earned a mechanical and aerospace engineering degree from West Virginia University in 2010, where she was a Truman Scholar, a Goldwater Scholar, and Ms. Mountaineer. At MIT, she received two master’s degrees in 2013, in aeronautics and astronautics and in technology and policy, and won the René Miller Prize. She later worked as a visiting scholar at the Harvard NASA Tournament Lab, helping organizations apply crowdsourcing to technical problems.

Career

As a college student Calandrelli interned at NASA, designing the simulation for the Phoenix Mars Lander's soil testing experiment, researching laser use to reduce jet engine emissions, and developing chemical detection sensors. She is a professional speaker on space exploration, scientific literacy, and gender equality in STEM, a TEDx speaker, a contributing writer at TechCrunch, and a Brooke Owens Fellowship Mentor. In 2014 she became host of Xploration Outer Space on Fox's Xploration Station.

In April 2017 she appeared on Netflix's Bill Nye Saves the World. Known online as "The Space Gal," she has presented at Google, Pixar, MIT, Texas Instruments, and schools and universities across the US. The White House invited her to perform science experiments at the Easter Egg Roll in 2023 and 2024. She wrote the Ada Lace chapter book series, the picture book Reach for the Stars (2022), and two children's science experiment books.

In July 2024 she announced she would be a New Shepard passenger; on November 22, 2024 she launched on Blue Origin's NS-28 mission, becoming the 100th woman in space, the second woman from West Virginia in space, and the 10th woman to fly suborbitally above the Kármán line.

Advocacy

Calandrelli uses social media and public speaking to advocate for scientific literacy, space exploration benefits, and STEM careers, especially for girls and women. She has advocated for parental leave in aerospace.

Did You Know?

• Calandrelli became a licensed amateur radio operator in January 2011 under call sign KD8PKR.
• She met her husband, aerospace engineer Tommy Franklin, during a NASA internship.