Kellie Gerardi is an astronaut, mom, bioastronautics researcher, and popular science communicator who serves as the Director of Human Spaceflight Operations for the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS).

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Kellie served as a payload specialist on the Galactic 05 / IIAS-01 research mission with Virgin Galactic in 2023, during which she operated three biomedical and thermodynamic fluids experiments in space. You can read more about her research experiments 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.

 

As one of the world's first payload specialists to fly on a commercial spacecraft and one of the first 100 women in history to fly to space, Kellie has made it her mission to enable the next generation of researchers to use space as a laboratory to benefit humanity.

 

Here on Earth, Kellie has tested and matured technologies across more than 120 parabolas in reduced gravity research flight campaigns, including with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). Kellie is also notable science communicator and the author of the acclaimed children’s picture book series Luna Muna, which has been read aloud from both the International Space Station and the First Lady’s Reading Nook at the White House.

 

In addition to her work in space, Kellie leads Mission Operations for Palantir Technologies and serves on the Defense Council for the Truman National Security Project. She is 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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