The Next Frontier: Kellie Gerardi on Spaceflight, Motherhood, and Redefining What’s Possible
- 6 days ago
- 7 min read
In this exclusive interview with Miami Living Magazine, Kellie Gerardi – astronaut, author, researcher, and commercial spaceflight pioneer – invites us into a defining chapter of her life. As only the 90th woman in history to journey into space, she represents a new generation of explorers expanding what’s possible for women everywhere.Rising to global recognition following her first science spaceflight as a payload specialist aboard Virgin Galactic's Galactic 05 mission in 2023, and widely known for her candid advocacy around infertility through her “Operation: Space Baby” journey, Gerardi has become a powerful voice at the intersection of science, storytelling, and motherhood. Serving as Director of Human Spaceflight at the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS), preparing to lead her next research mission, welcome her second child, and celebrate the launch of her own Barbie as part of Mattel’s Dream Team, she reflects with warmth and intention on resilience, representation, and what it truly means to dream boldly – and bring others along with you.
ML: Before we dive in today, we’d love to start simply – what has been bringing you the most joy or sense of peace lately?
Kellie: Lately, life has felt much quieter than I’m used to. I’m someone who has spent most of my life in motion, whether that’s training, flying, or building toward something, and right now, being medically grounded and marching towards the finish line in this long-awaited IVF pregnancy has forced me into stillness in a way that’s new for me.
The most surprising part is that I’m really enjoying that stillness. There’s obviously something very grounding about preparing to welcome a child after such a long and uncertain journey, and it’s made me more present day to day and more appreciative of the small moments of peace.
I think after so many years of living inside big ambition and big uncertainty, peace right now looks like simplicity: time with my family, feeling this baby kick, and allowing myself to just try and enjoy the present without fixating on the future.
ML: You’ve quite literally reached for the stars, and now, with your very own Barbie, you’ve become part of a cultural legacy that shapes how young girls dream. What does it mean to you, personally and symbolically, to see your journey reflected through this iconic lens?
Kellie: It’s surreal in the most full-circle way. I grew up loving Barbie. To me, she represented everything. She was an astronaut, a doctor, a scientist, a fashion designer, a veterinarian, a teacher… and that idea that you didn’t have to choose just one version of yourself in life really stayed with me.
So to now be part of that legacy, as someone who has built a career and created a new path that didn’t exist before, feels incredibly meaningful. Personally, it’s a moment where that little girl from Jupiter, Florida gets to see her imagination reflected back at her. And it was so special to be able to share that with my daughter (who is also obviously a massive Barbie fan!)
ML: As one of the few women to travel to space more than once, how do you think representation in aerospace – and in toys like Barbie – can shift the narrative for the next generation of female explorers?
Kellie: I think representation shapes what we believe is possible, and when girls see someone who looks like them, who lives a full, multifaceted life, who can be a research scientist and a mom and a dreamer all at once, it expands the boundaries of their own imagination.
For most of my life, if I closed my eyes and pictured someone conducting research in space, I didn’t see someone who looked like me. But if you ask my daughter to draw a picture of an astronaut, she’s drawing a girl. More often, she’s drawing herself.
Even though fewer than 90 women in history had ever flown to space at the time that my daughter watched me fly for the first time, in her mind, flying to space was just another thing girls do. She’s growing up knowing that not even the sky is a limit on her dreams.
Moving the needle in society and industries like aerospace means designing systems, research, and opportunities that include women from the beginning, not as an afterthought. And in culture, things like Barbie play a huge role in normalizing those possibilities at a young age and help us move from “firsts” to “of course”.
ML: Your openness around IVF, loss, and resilience has deeply resonated with so many. How did sharing such a vulnerable journey publicly transform you – not just as a mother, but as a leader and storyteller?
Kellie: Motherhood is a huge part of my identity, but it has also been a big struggle for me. For nearly 8 years since my daughter was born, I’ve struggled with secondary infertility.
So while the struggle to conceive is not new for me, the transparency in the last few years as I turned to IVF is. I had been sharing so much about my work and professional life, that it felt kind of remiss or disingenuous to not address the giant elephant that was sitting on top of me in my personal life. Compartmentalizing just doesn’t really work for me.
And one of the insidious things about infertility or IVF is how it becomes the A-plot of your life, and everything else gets shoved to the back. It’s an all-consuming journey – mentally, physically, emotionally, financially… and yet we still have to show up for all of our other responsibilities in life, whether that’s family or work.
When I decided to share the reality of my IVF process, I knew going into it that success wasn’t guaranteed. I knew not every IVF story ends in pregnancy, and not every pregnancy ends with a baby. And I had already mentally committed to sharing the reality of the good, the bad, and the heartbreaking. So even though there was less than a 3% chance of miscarriage at the time of my most recent loss, it was a hard reminder that there are always people who fall on the sad side of those statistics, and I was one of them.
Discussions around infertility and miscarriage and loss still feel taboo, and this entire experience has fundamentally reshaped how I lead and how I communicate. As a leader, it made me more honest, more vulnerable, more empathetic, and more aware of how many people are quietly navigating something difficult behind the scenes. As a storyteller, it taught me that the most powerful stories aren’t the perfect ones where everything goes according to plan; I’m much more interested in the stories that live in uncertainty and have to keep going anyway.
ML: And now you’re preparing to welcome your second child while also planning a return to space in 2026, a rare and powerful dual trajectory. How has motherhood reshaped your relationship to ambition, risk, and purpose?
Kellie: Motherhood has made everything more intentional. It hasn’t made me less ambitious, but it’s made me more precise about why I’m ambitious.
Before, a lot of my ambition was rooted in possibility and curiosity. Now, it’s also rooted in legacy and intentionality about what I’m modeling and the world I want to help shape for my daughters.
Risk is another big topic as a parent in my field, too. It’s not something I approach lightly, but I also don’t see it as something to avoid entirely. I want my daughters to understand that meaningful, mission-driven work often lives on the other side of calculated risk, and that you can pursue big dreams responsibly and thoughtfully.
And purpose also feels more grounded than ever. Human spaceflight is still extraordinary, but it’s no longer such an abstract thing. Being able to help open the door for the next generation of scientists to use space as a laboratory to benefit humanity is directly connected to the kind of future I want to help build, both for them and for the next generation.
ML: As you prepare to lead your next science mission with IIAS (International Institute for Astronautical Sciences), how does stepping into a leadership role in space feel different from your first journey beyond Earth?
Kellie: The first mission was about proving the path was real, and this next one is about creating space for others.
Stepping into a leadership role shifts your perspective completely because it’s no longer just about your own performance. It’s about building a team, setting the tone, and ensuring that everyone around you is set up to succeed in every way.
It’s also very meaningful to me we happen to have an all-female research crew. That wasn’t by design, but it’s special that it worked out that way based on the research priorities and expertise required, because this creates an opportunity to contribute to a more inclusive and representative future of space exploration, both in who gets to go and what research gets prioritized.
Overall it feels much less like a personal milestone and more like a collective one.
ML: Your upcoming mission will include biomedical and women’s health research – something that hasn’t always been front and center in space exploration. What does it mean to you to be part of expanding that conversation?
Kellie: That’s one of the most important parts of the mission to me. Historically, space research has been conducted on a narrow population, and so much of what we call “standard” was built around male bodies and male career paths. Whether it’s medical standards, equipment design, research priorities, or even the sample sizes we have for female physiology in extreme environments, those gaps are the outcome of decades of exclusion.
So when we talk about women’s health research in space, we’re not just adding something new, we’re starting to address what’s been missing.
Being part of expanding datasets and contributing to closing long-standing research gaps feels incredibly meaningful. It’s about making sure future explorers have better data, better design, and better support, regardless of gender.
And more broadly, it’s about using space as a laboratory to generate insights that can benefit life here on Earth. That’s the kind of impact that excites me most.
ML: When you imagine the next chapter of your life, both on Earth and beyond it, what feels most exciting—or most meaningful—to you right now?
Kellie: Right now, the intersection of everything is both most exciting and most meaningful.
For so long, so much of my life felt like it existed in separate lanes, like career, motherhood, personal challenges, public life. And now, they’re all finally converging in a way that feels more integrated and more honest.
I’m excited about continuing to fly, to lead, to contribute to research that matters. But I’m equally excited about raising my daughters in a world where their sense of possibility is bigger than mine ever was.
If I had to sum it up, this next chapter is about continuing forward, even when I don’t know how it ends.
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