Astronaut Kellie Gerardi is counting down to lifting off.
Gerardi made headlines in 2023 when she went to space aboard a Virgin Galactic suborbital flight, becoming one of less than a hundred women to slip the surly bonds of Earth. Not to mention, she’s built up quite a following on TikTok.
Now she is slated to return to space with Virgin Galactic in 2026 as part of an all-female sub-orbital spaceflight, and she’s shared details about her training regimen — and what will be different with an all-female crew.
Fit for spaceflight
“We like to joke that we’re upping our dose of ‘Vitamin G’ — a major component of preparation involves flying in parabolic (zero-g) and aerobatic (high-g) campaigns here on Earth to validate that our payloads and research equipment will perform as intended in extreme conditions and to refine our in-space operations as researchers,” she told The Post.
Physical fitness is also critical to success in space.
“Good cardiac health helps with your tolerance of high G forces, so we incorporate plenty of cardio into our workout routines,” she explained.
“For cardio, I like to mix up the intensity and impact levels. I make sure to walk daily (my favorite time to clear my head!), and I’m a fan of incorporating bursts of jogging and running.
“I also do a lot of core strength workouts and am enjoying interval training.”
Because the flight is short, Gerardi shouldn’t expect to experience quite as many health changes as US astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams might after nine months in space.
Rocketship women
In terms of female wellness off the ground and beyond our stratosphere, Gerardi maintains that much has changed since NASA suggested astronaut Sally Ride take 100 tampons to space for a one-week mission.
Gerardi, who will lead the all-female science team in next year’s sub-orbital spaceflight, says one of the team’s research priorities is women’s health studies.
“This next research spaceflight is going to help advance the studies we began on the first mission and introduce new research as well,” she said.
“I’m thrilled for the opportunity to fly and work alongside two of my brilliant colleagues, Dr. Shawna Pandya of Canada and Dr. Norah Patten of Ireland.
“While the science team wasn’t designed to be all-female, the fact that it happened to work out that way is a fun testament to how far we’ve come since the days of Sally Ride.”
The footwear question
Gerardi recently teamed up with the female-focused athletic shoe brand Rykä and posed for their new Podflow campaign.
She gushed that their the first brand “to design athletic shoes specifically for a woman’s unique foot shape, muscle movement, and build.”
“The fact that they’re designed for women from the start, and not just adapted for us, is incredibly unique and isn’t something I take for granted,” she said.
But do her sneakers — or any shoes, for that matter — make it to space? Yes and no.
Through her previous role as a DC-based crew member and bioastronautics researcher with the International Institute for Aeronautical Studies, Gerardi has tested spacesuits, evaluated aircrafts, and studied biometrics to help optimize the human experience in space.
She told The Post that during long-duration missions, astronauts usually go shoeless, but for shorter spaceflights and same-day science missions, it is sneakers in space.
“I wear a sneaker that has a slightly taller ankle height to comfortably accommodate the ankle hem of my flight suit,” she said.
“I actually found my sneakers useful during my first research spaceflight when I was operating research equipment because I made use of the foot cup holds on my spacecraft floor for stability and to position myself.”
