Kellie Gerardi (@kelliegerardi) is a multi-mission astronaut who became the 90th woman in history to fly to space and one of the world’s first payload specialists to fly on a commercial spacecraft. As a mother, researcher, author, and daily source of inspiration to millions of followers on social media, USA Today calls her “a woman of many successful missions” and named her a 2025 Woman of the Year. Kellie is also the recipient of a 2025 People's Voice Webby Award in recognition of her highly engaged and supportive social media following. She has appeared on shows like The Jennifer Hudson Show, CBS Mornings and The Talk, and has been profiled in publications ranging from Glamour to Forbes. Her children’s book series Luna Muna has been read from both the International Space Station and the White House and she has appeared in a number of prominent STEM-focused media campaigns. Known for her inspiring career reflections on mindset and embracing multitudes and praised for her refreshing transparency around personal struggles through IVF and pregnancy loss, Kellie paints a powerful portrait of modern motherhood. Kellie serves on the Defense Council for the Truman National Security Project and is a Member of the Society of Women Engineers. She is also a Fellow and former Executive Board Member of The Explorers Club, whose esteemed flag she carried on a crew rotation to the Mars Desert Research Station. Kellie lives in Jupiter, Florida with her husband and their daughter Delta V.

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ABOUT HER RESEARCH CAREER: 

Kellie served as a payload specialist on the Galactic 05 /  IIAS01 research mission with Virgin Galactic in 2023, during which she operated biomedical and thermodynamic fluids experiments in space on behalf of the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences, where she serves as the Director of Human Spaceflight and a Test Flight Director. You can read more about the research she conducted in space here. Kellie will lead the IIAS-02 research mission in 2026, and her second spaceflight will advance the scientific knowledge gained from IIAS-01 and introduce novel biomedical research alongside her international IIAS crewmates Dr. Shawna Pandya of Canada and Dr. Norah Patten of Ireland. Here on Earth, Kellie has tested and matured technologies across more than 150 parabolas in microgravity research flight campaigns, including with MIT, the National Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Space Agency. 

 

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