"Humanity's Next Great Leap": Citizen Astronaut Kellie Gerardi Imagines the Future of Space Exploration

We are now entering the age of commercial spaceflight. For the right price, companies like SpaceX are ready to take anyone on a journey to view Earth from above, and in 2019, new NASA regulations allowed the International Space Station to join in product sponsorships with brands like Estée Lauder, Mattel, and Adidas. But for Kellie Gerardi, the private sector space industry represents much more than a mere joyride or advertising platform. It's the dawn of a “new space age,” offering microgravity research and broader accessibility.

Gerardi was one of two bioastronautics researchers on Virgin Galactic’s Galactic 05 mission, a one-hour suborbital flight dedicated to microgravity studies. This was Virgin Galactic’s sixth spaceflight in six months and its final one of 2023. The journey, reaching 54 miles above Earth, was a thrilling, adrenaline-packed adventure, described by Gerardi as reminiscent of a science fiction novel. It marked the peak of her ten-year career in various sectors of the commercial space industry, including space policy, hardware, business growth, and research. But for her, this is only the beginning.

Beyond Just Space Tourism

Bioastronautics is the exploration of human life support in outer space, integrating biology, psychology, engineering, and various other disciplines to create survival systems for space missions. During Gerardi’s mission, sponsored by her team at the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS), she conducted experiments on how liquids behave in microgravity, potentially aiding in the development of better medication delivery systems for astronauts. Additionally, she wore several biosensors to track the effects of microgravity on her body, monitoring vital signs such as heart rate, skin temperature, and blood glucose levels. The results will likely help pave the way for more comfortable and longer space missions, including those to Mars with human crews.

Private-sector space missions, such as the Galactic 05 flight, offer research institutions an alternative route to space, opening up more opportunities to study conditions like microgravity, according to Gerardi. She believes they “mark the beginning of a new era of space access for researchers,” offering a “Goldilocks solution” to obstacles like the high cost of the International Space Station.

Her perspective contrasts with the widespread view of commercial space travel as merely space tourism, a luxury for the wealthiest individuals that highlights economic disparity.

Gerardi, however, sees figures like Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Blue Origin, as “patrons” of the emerging industry, part of the broader commercial space landscape. Without their financial backing, she argues, research like hers would be severely restricted, and the market they foster ultimately supports larger endeavors to explore and comprehend the universe.

That’s not to say she doesn’t recognize the importance of government involvement in space exploration. She cites NASA’s historic achievements as proof of the continuing importance of public institutions. “For humanity’s sake, we need government leadership in exploration where the future is uncertain,” she says. “To investigate, for example, what exists beneath the surface of Europa. These are the kinds of missions that may not have a clear commercial justification. As a species, we benefit from having governmental organizations guiding us toward extraordinary breakthroughs for humankind.”

"Everyone’s Talents Contribute to the Bigger Picture"

At first, the commercial space sector’s focus on making space more accessible “struck a chord with [her]” and inspired Gerardi to follow her passion for space research in an industry still predominantly led by men. By 2021, just one in five people in space-related fields were women. The number of women who have actually gone to space is even smaller: fewer than 100 women have flown in space, comprising only 11 percent of all astronauts and 6.6 percent of those who have conducted spacewalks.

For Gerardi, this journey involved a personal battle to break free from ingrained mental boundaries. “I was exposed to the world of STEM,” she reflects, “but my own understanding—like, ‘What is an astronaut?’ ‘What do they look like?’ ‘What do they sound like?’ ‘What image comes to mind when I think of an astronaut?’—was drastically different from what I saw when I looked in the mirror.”

This personal journey is part of the inspiration behind Gerardi’s creation of the Luna Muna children’s book series, which showcases a young, distinctly “girly” female astronaut. She strives to close the representation gap for younger generations, especially her own daughter, Delta. “What I see is that my daughter doesn’t have to change anything in her imagination,” she explains. “When I ask Delta to draw an astronaut, she draws a woman.” Gerardi eagerly anticipates the accomplishments of future generations of women who will have the “confidence to begin their journeys knowing that these paths are open to them.”

For Gerardi, expanding access to space—both for researchers and for underrepresented groups—is not just an admirable goal but a crucial one. Building a utopian, Star Trek style future will require people from all walks of life and skills to unite, she believes. “Space is inherently aspirational and inspiring,” she says. “This is humanity’s next giant leap. Everyone’s unique talents contribute to helping us move forward to the next chapter.”