Astronaut’s family throws her a ‘space shower’ to celebrate her next spaceflight assignment
Scientist Kellie Gerardi had a career shower for her upcoming spaceflight. (@kelliegerardi/Instagram)
An astronaut’s family has thrown her a “space shower” to celebrate her next spaceflight assignment, giving her the career shower to end all others.
While some families are choosing to share special news like a new baby or upcoming nuptials with a sex reveal party or wedding shower, respectively, Kellie Gerardi’s nearest and dearest “brought equal energy” into her latest work milestone with a career shower.
Gerardi, who was one of the first 100 women in space, is flying again as a payload specialist (someone who handles specialised payloads, experiments and equipment) on a dedicated science mission on Virgin Galactic’s new Delta class spacecraft.
Marking her second-ever spaceflight on the upcoming IIAS-02 mission, the bioastronautics researcher will be continuing “human-tended microgravity research” alongside fellow women Dr. Shawna Pandya and Dr. Norah Patten.
Noting in a previous post that she “flew to space in the same year as the Eras Tour, the Barbie movie and the Renaissance Tour”, one of the cookies at her career shower read “Astronaut Era” with an adorable Taylor Swift-style friendship bracelet.
The same style of cookie also read “Blackjack 21”, harking back to her personal call sign and VG astronaut number. Another cookie was decorated with her daughter’s name “Delta”, who was named after the American spacecraft family.
A fourth cookie at the career shower read: “…Now what? TWO hit wonder?” Geradi explained it was a running joke in her family “since some troll commented ‘one hit wonder’ after my first spaceflight”.
The scientist even shared that her party had a “Chocolate smash reveal!”, adding: “It’s a boy girl spaceflight!!”
Geradi concluded in the post: “Thanks to my mama and thanks to Brandy at Sweet Gypsy Bakery for the best Space Shower treats…Cheers to showering your loved ones with celebration for ALL of life’s big milestones, both family & career.”
Gerardi previously spoke about the upcoming launch: “The quality microgravity provided by Virgin Galactic is truly game-changing. We’ll expand on our fluid cell experiment, working to control liquid behaviour. A ‘fly, fix, fly’ approach opens exciting possibilities for making discoveries that benefit future space explorers.”
The mission is set to be a part of Virgin Galactic’s first year of Delta commercial service and is anticipated to start in 2026.
