Female astronaut goes to space but still can’t escape online sexism

A candid moment was turned into something vile online (Picture: Blue Origin)

The 100th woman to go to space has become the focus of sexist online comments after she uploaded a video of her experience viewing Earth.

Emily Calandrelli went to space with Blue Origin, a space company launched by Jeff Bezos, on November 22.

In a touching video shared on social media, Emily wrote: ‘Our planet. I left her, I saw her. This is a dream decades in the making.

‘The only thing I can compare it to was holding my babies for the first time after they were born.

‘Like knowing someone for a long time, loving someone for a while, but seeing them with your own eyes for the very first time.’

Emily, an astronaut and MIT engineer, who also hosts a television show on Netflix, was visibly awestruck in the footage.

The video received thousands of likes – but sexist comments, as well. So many, in fact, that Blue Origin took down the video they shared as well because of the comments which sexualised Emily.

Emily wrote afterwards: ‘Within 24 hours, I had hoards of men sexualise my reaction to viewing our planet. So much so, that the video is taken down across all platforms.

‘Because being a woman achieving something monumental means expecting men to try to humiliate her, to belittle her, to objectify her.

‘I refuse to be embarrassed for my wonderment and joy. I love that I am someone who feels experiences with her whole soul. What a beautiful way to experience life,’ she added.

‘But I refuse to give much time to the small men on the internet.’

Emily is an engineer and hosts an educational show (Picture: Blue Origin)

Another woman achieved her dream of going to space on Virgin Galactic’s spaceflight in February.

Lina Borozdina was one of the commercial astronauts from around the world who represented different backgrounds for the first time in space.  

The DNA chemist and breast cancer survivor was inspired by his stories of space as she grew up in the port on the Black Sea coast while it was still a Soviet territory before moving to the US, where she lives in Las Vegas.  

Taking off from Spaceport America, Galactic 06 gave Lina the chance to ‘remind the world’ about Ukraine’s fight as she joined three other private astronauts, two from the US and one from Austria, and two crew. 

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