Emily Calandrelli, 100th woman in space, refuses to bow to “little men on the internet.”

CNN
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As Emily Calandrelli looked out the window of a rocket at the glittering blue edge of the Earth, her mind was probably far from the trolls that populate the internet on this planet.

But less than 24 hours after the MIT engineer and TV host known as “Space Gal” became the 100th woman to venture into space, “hordes of men” online were sexualizing her raw and emotional reaction, the author and astronaut said in a social media post. Media article.

In a video released by Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company Blue Origin, Calandrelli, one of six space tourists who attended the launch, is seen looking out the window in amazement and gushing, “Oh my God, this is space.”

It was an emotional and poignant response to the realization of what Calandrelli described as a “decade-long dream.”

Hundreds of social media users expressed their support for Calandrelli, calling her an inspiration to women and young girls. Several women commented on her post, saying they watched the livestream of the launch with their daughters.

But trolls took advantage of their reaction and made so many offensive comments that Blue Origin removed its original video from launch and replaced it with an edited one, Calandrelli said. CNN has reached out to Blue Origin for comment.

Calandrelli said she wouldn’t let online trolls ruin an experience that gave her “the greatest life-changing, spectacular joy and awe.”

“I refuse to devote much time to the little men on the internet. I feel experiences in my soul,” Calandrelli said in the post.

“I’m not going to apologize or feel weird about my reaction. It’s all mine and I love it.”

A representative for Calandrelli said she did not want to comment further, preferring to focus on the inspiration her journey has given others rather than posts from “misguided” trolls.

Friday’s mission was Blue Origin’s ninth manned spaceflight on the rocket, which is used for space tourism. The mission was to fly above the Kármán Line – the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space – for several minutes before returning to Earth.

In addition to Calandrelli, Sharon Hagle, Marc Hagle, Austin Litteral, James (JD) Russell and Henry (Hank) Wolfond were on board.

After landing safely at Blue Origin’s launch site in West Texas, Calandrelli compared seeing Earth from space for the first time to motherhood.

“I immediately turned upside down and looked at the planet, and then there was so much space, and I kept saying, ‘That’s our planet!’

“It was the same feeling I had when my children were born there when I first saw it.”

In June 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina V. Tereshkova became the first woman to travel into space, but it would be 20 years before another woman left Earth.

Astronaut Sally K. Ride became the first American woman to visit space in June 1983.

Calandrelli said she cried on the flight home from the mission because of the online reaction and texted her “space sisters” asking for advice.

As she got off the plane, Calandrelli said the Southwest flight attendant recognized her and whispered to her, “Don’t let them dull your shine.”

“I immediately felt a sense of camaraderie with her and all the women,” Calandrelli said.