INSPIRATION / ENGINEERING, EXPLORATION & WONDER
Emily
Calandrelli
Let wonder
be wonderful.
By Rob Urban
There is a peculiar rule attached to expertise. The more someone knows, the less surprised we expect her to look.
An aerospace engineer can explain the boundary of space, the shape of a trajectory and the difference between orbit and a suborbital flight. Apparently she is also supposed to see Earth through a spacecraft window with the composure of someone checking a familiar item off a grocery list.
Emily Calandrelli did not.
On November 22, 2024, she flew on Blue Origin’s NS-28 mission and became the 100th woman to travel to space. The flight was suborbital: it crossed into space and returned without circling Earth. In a later interview with PEOPLE, she described a mixture of awe, pride and fear as she looked at the planet.
That combination belongs in the story. Understanding a vehicle does not make its window view ordinary. I would rather hear a technically informed person try to describe an overwhelming experience than watch her edit the feeling out to sound more impressive.
Precision does not require
emotional beige.
Calandrelli’s path into public science began with engineering. Her official biography records bachelor’s degrees in mechanical and aerospace engineering from West Virginia University, followed by master’s degrees at MIT in aeronautics and astronautics and in technology and policy. Her work grew to include television, books, speaking and experiments for children.
That move can be described too casually as leaving engineering for communication. Communication is not what remains after the technical work is removed. Done well, it requires decisions about accuracy, sequence, analogy, attention and the dignity of the audience.
Calandrelli works across formats because different audiences enter through different doors. Xploration Outer Space explores the space industry. Emily’s Wonder Lab brings children into experiments through play. The Ada Lace chapter books, the picture book Reach for the Stars and her experiment books give curiosity a place to continue after the screen goes dark.
A television host can point toward a question. A chapter-book character can spend a story pursuing one. An experiment gives a child something to observe directly. The change of format changes what the audience can do with its curiosity.
A prediction
of your own.
The work becomes especially interesting when the audience gets something to do.
Chronicle Books describes Stay Curious and Keep Exploring as fifty experiments with prompts to make a hypothesis and try variations. The publisher lists room for notes and connections between the activities and ordinary life.
I like the respect built into that invitation. A child’s prediction has a place before the answer arrives. The child can find out what happened, compare it with what they expected, and change their mind.
Those are substantial responsibilities to give a young reader. They turn the book into a place where the reader’s thinking matters.
For a communicator, there is generosity in designing an experience that can continue without you. The explanation starts something. The family at the table gets to take it further.
COLUMBIA RIVER SECTION / MAY 2021
The host did
not have to be
in every room.
There is a documented example of that handoff. In May 2021, the Society of Women Engineers’ Columbia River Section used Emily’s Wonder Lab for two virtual activity sessions with children and parents.
The group’s account, published in September 2022, describes volunteers combining the videos with a safety discussion, experiments and questions. Children made things including lava lamps and oobleck. The organizers reported that young participants joined the discussions and asked questions during the activities.
That is a satisfying form of reach. Her work helped other adults make a good afternoon of learning possible. The host did not have to be in every room.
I admire the creative ambition in that. An engaging program can be a resource people gather around, adapt and share. The viewer who begins by watching someone else explain science can end the afternoon with an observation of their own.
Six people flew
that morning.
On November 22, 2024, Calandrelli flew with Sharon Hagle, Marc Hagle, Austin Litteral, James J.D. Russell and Henry Hank Wolfond. Blue Origin’s NS-28 record places her milestone within that six-person crew and the wider New Shepard program.
The engineers, ground team and fellow passengers belong in the picture. A personal dream can be intensely individual while depending on the knowledge and care of many other people.
New Shepard’s flight is suborbital. The capsule goes above the boundary of space and returns to Earth, without completing an orbit. The distinction helps us understand the journey while leaving its beauty intact.
Calandrelli also carried a flash drive with nearly 10,000 wishes submitted by children and families, she told PEOPLE. That is a wonderfully compact way to carry a large conversation into a small capsule.
Her joy belongs to her.
The Guardian documented sexist responses to her flight video. Calandrelli refused to apologize for her joy.
Enthusiasm is useful to a science program. It helps an audience recognize that the presenter cares about the question. That same enthusiasm belongs to her when she encounters the thing herself.
I admire her willingness to keep the experience her own. There is no obligation to make a long-awaited moment smaller so that a stranger will find it easier to categorize.
I want public science to leave room for a whole person. A precise explanation and an excited response can come from the same mind. The combination gives us more to understand about both the subject and the person explaining it.
Wonder is part
of the method.
Science is not the opposite of wonder. It is one way of refusing to let wonder remain vague.
A child asks why. An engineer turns the question into constraints, measurements and tests. A communicator turns the answer back toward a human being without stripping away what made the question worth asking. The cycle depends on both discipline and feeling.
Calandrelli’s career sits inside that cycle. She has made television, written for children, spoken about scientific literacy and finally looked at the planet from the place she had spent years explaining. The view did not become ordinary because she understood the vehicle.
That may be the most generous part of her example. Expertise does not have to make the world smaller. It can make astonishment more exact.
The NS-28 flight lasted minutes. The work around it took years, involved many people and belonged to a much larger history of women pressing into places where their competence was once treated as an exception. Calandrelli brought technical training to the window and still allowed the view to overwhelm her.
Knowledge remained intact. So did joy.
About Emily Calandrelli
When did Emily Calandrelli fly to space?
Calandrelli flew on Blue Origin’s NS-28 mission on November 22, 2024, becoming the 100th woman to travel to space.
Was NS-28 an orbital mission?
No. It was a suborbital New Shepard flight that crossed the boundary of space and returned to Earth without completing an orbit.
What is Emily’s Wonder Lab?
Emily’s Wonder Lab is a children’s science series hosted by Calandrelli. It introduces experiments and activities, including versions families can try at home.
Sources: Calandrelli’s official biography; Blue Origin’s mission and vehicle records; Jordan Greene’s December 2024 PEOPLE interview; The Guardian; Netflix’s series description; Chronicle Books’ catalog; and the Society of Women Engineers’ event account. Reflections on wonder and communication are Rob Urban’s.
For more of Rob’s writing, perspective and consulting, meet Rob.