Emily Calandrelli returns to Morgantown to read to children’s hospital patients

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) — Engineer, Netflix series host, author and future astronaut Emily Calandrelli made a stop in her hometown of Morgantown on Tuesday to read to patients at WVU Medicine Children’s.

“It just means so much to be able to come back to my home state, to my hometown and try and connect with the students here,” said Calandrelli. “And show them that country roads can lead them to the stars.”

For this event, Calandrelli read a children’s book that she wrote called “Reach for the Stars,” which is dedicated to her child-age daughter and “shares all of the hopes and dreams that any parent, any caretaker hopes and dreams for their own child,” according to Calandrelli.

Calandrelli is currently preparing to go to space as a part of Space for Humanity’s Citizen Astronaut Program, which will make her one of the first women from West Virginia to accomplish this feat.

Both of Calandrelli’s parents have volunteered at WVU Medicine Children’s Hospital, which is what inspired her visit in the first place. “Now that they’re retired, it’s a way to give back to the community and I know it’s really meaningful to them,” she added. “So I’m excited to sort of share this experience with them today.”

Calandrelli will be flying with Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company, Blue Origin in a spacecraft called “the New Shepard Rocket,” named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space. She said that the rocket will follow a simple trajectory, emulating Shepard’s, meaning “it literally goes up, touches space and comes back down.”

The ride will be a 12-minute experience altogether and is fully autonomous. Therefore, Calandrelli won’t need to fly it herself and her preparation will solely consist of getting in and out of her harness when in space, and preparing herself for the G-forces in space.

Once she’s in space, Calandrelli will be able to get out of her harness and float around for about five minutes where she can also look out of the windows.

“It’s a view I’ve dreamed of and I just can’t believe I’m gonna be able to experience it for myself sometime soon,” she added. Calandrelli wasn’t able to share when she’s going into space, but she believes it will be sometime in the near future.

As one of the only West Virginia natives to go into space, Calandrelli said that her goal was to leverage her flight to uplift West Virginia. “I think we all know being from West Virginia–when West Virginia’s in the national news, it’s not often for reasons that we would like to be,” she added. “And so, I am so excited to be able to uplift West Virginia in this positive way and showcase the state in just a beautiful way.”

Growing up in Morgantown, Calandrelli said that she didn’t know any scientists or engineers for herself growing up. Therefore, she doesn’t think that she ever realized how big her dreams could truly be, and she wants to change that reality for Morgantown youth.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBOY.com.