Even astronauts have down days.
Kellie Gerardi, the director of human spaceflight at the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences and the 90th woman to fly to space, is also just a working mom juggling it all.
When she’s not parenting or teaching astronauts-in-training about microgravity, Gerardi documents her fertility challenges and motherhood journey on Instagram — the research astronaut recently gave birth to her second daughter, who was conceived through IVF.
In June of 2026, at just 8 weeks postpartum, Gerardi returned to work and became the first woman to pump breastmilk in microgravity during a parabolic flight for the IIAS. (Her device of choice was a breast pump from Willow’s lineup.)
For those who find the science interesting [and] want to understand why it matters to research,” Gerardi wrote alongside a recent Instagram post, “breast milk contains bioactive lipids that reflect things like maternal metabolism, inflammation, stress responses, and overall physiologic adaptation during the postpartum period. So studying how those molecules change in response to a controlled physiologic stressor like microgravity / high g can help us gain a better understanding of how maternal physiologic stress is reflected in milk during postpartum recovery.”
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After more than eight years of secondary infertility, the birth of her daughter was a vision finally realized. As a way to give back to her community, Gerardi teamed up with online registry site Babylist to establish a pair of IVF grants.
Gerardi, 37, is happy to serve as a role model for her 2.5 million followers on Instagram and TikTok, but not in the my-life-is-perfect way. Gerardi literally reaches for the stars, but also remains completely down to Earth about the heaps of expectations placed on women.
“I gained about 60 pounds across my most recent round of IVF and through this pregnancy,” Gerardi posted recently. “Those pounds are mostly still with me and I suspect they might be for a bit, and it’s such a relief to know I just… don’t have to spend mental energy feeling any sort of way about that.”
Two and a half years after visiting space on Virgin Galactic’s Galactic 05 Mission, Gerardi was recognized for her achievements when a Barbie doll was created in her likeness as part of a celebration of International Women’s Day.
Gerardi had the perfect Instagram caption to mark the occasion: “When you worked your butt off the past 20 years so your daughter(s) can say Mommy is an astronaut AND a Barbie.”
A throughline to much of Gerardi’s online content is her belief that women — and girls — contain multitudes. It’s not just something that she says, though; it’s something she lives.
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