An astronaut whose video had to be removed from Instagram has issued a powerful statement over DEI at NASA.
Emily Calandrelli’s trip to space with Blue Origin was one for the history books, as she became the 100th woman to enter space.
The MIT engineer, who is also known online as The Space Gal, was one of six ‘space tourists’ on the human test flight for the firm’s New Shepherd spacecraft.
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She posted about her experience on Instagram but was forced to remove her video after she became the target of trolls.
Calandrelli’s comment section was flooded with sexualized remarks, a tamer one being: “Would you consider yourself the hottest woman to ever go to space? Any other contenders?”
Since then, the astronaut has hit back with an Instagram reel that shares a powerful statement over DEI.
Posting a video of her achievements, including her time in space and her graduation, Calandrelli responded to an apparent comment that says: “You only get that stuff because of DEI”.
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To which, she wrote: “Let’s go resume to resume, you first.”
In the caption, she added: “You first. Those who fight against diversity initiatives are often afraid that their own mediocrity might, for the first time in their life, be challenged.
“Warren Buffet once stated that one of the reasons for his great success was that he only had to compete with half the population.
“Diversity makes us ALL better. Lack of it leads to inefficiencies and comes at a cost - our time, our money, and our health.”
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This statement comes after NASA was ordered to remove any mention of ‘women in leadership’ from its websites.
Following an executive order signed by President Donald Trump against programs promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA), a NASA directive was obtained by 404 Media.
In the directive, it states: “Per NASA HQ direction, we are required to scrub mentions of the following terms from our public sites by 5pm ET today. This is a drop everything and reprioritize your day request. Note that the list below is the list that exists this morning, but it may grow as the day goes on.
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DEIA
Diversity (in context of DEIA)
Equity (" ")
Inclusion (" ")
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Accessibility (" ")
MSI
Minority Serving Institution
Indigenous People
EEJ
EJ
Environmental Justice
Underrepresented groups/people
Anything specifically targeting women (women in leadership, etc.)”
Janet Petro is the current administrator of NASA but, despite having a woman leading the space agency, it no longer wants to mention women in leadership on its website.
The directive, which was sent out on January 22, also informs NASA staff that the site needs to be cleared of any mention of DEI, environmental justice, Indigenous people, and accessibility.
Federal agencies have received a memo by the US Office of Personnel Management shortly after Trump took office that instructed the bodies to put all staff members in DEIA offices on paid leave.
They were also told to provide a list of any DEIA offices as well as a redundancy plan.
Petro was one of the signatories of the memo, which stated that diversity programs ‘divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination’.