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The very first thing astronaut Kellie Gerardi did when she touched back down to Earth after her first spaceflight in November 2023? Run to her then-6-year-old daughter, Delta Victoria (named for delta-v, the quantitative measure of a change in velocity), who stood waiting for her at Spaceport America in New Mexico.
Gerardi has been to space, experienced weightlessness, and accomplished incredible feats she once only imagined. But her daughter is her whole universe. “The best part of my day is spending time with [Delta] and finding joy in all of the things that she finds joy in,” Gerardi says.
Balancing motherhood and her demanding career has always required careful planning and attention—especially as she faced unexpected, difficult hurdles in her fertility journey. Eight years ago, after trying to conceive for more than a year, Gerardi underwent diagnostic fertility tests and planned to move forward with intrauterine insemination, or IUI, when she miraculously got pregnant without intervention. Delta was born in November of 2017. Overjoyed, Gerardi and her husband planned to conceive their next child soon after.
“I did know early on that it might not be as easy for me to conceive as it is for others,” Gerardi says. But in the back of her mind, she kept holding out hope that they might get lucky again.
They didn’t. Over the next few years, Gerardi struggled with secondary infertility (when someone is unable to get pregnant or carry a pregnancy to term after having one or more successful pregnancies). She experienced multiple pregnancy losses, including a chemical pregnancy and a second-trimester loss. “I was trying to understand what the issue was,” she says. “There was the emotional longing to grow our family but also frustration at not having an answer as to why [unassisted] conception wasn’t working.”
Eventually, in the fall of 2024, Gerardi and her husband decided to try IVF. But her career (she has been training as an astronaut since 2014 and working in the space field since 2012) introduced a whole slew of complicating factors during the IVF process that Gerardi and her health care team had to consider. Experts are still trying to unravel the complexities of women’s fertility issues—add planned spaceflights and antigravity concerns and it’s a whole different ball game.
And with a 2026 flight looming, she felt the urgency to pursue IVF sooner rather than later.
Bio Lessons From Space
As an astronaut with a special research focus in microgravity, or conditions where the gravitational force is very small or close to zero, Gerardi just can’t do some training exercises while pregnant. Parabolic flights, which reproduce microgravity and are a regular part of training, are a no-go. Rapid changes in gravity could result in increased pressure or blood flow complications that might harm a growing fetus and put the mother in distress.
So no, Gerardi will not be going into space if she’s pregnant. “Flying to space is up there with roller coasters, hot tubs, sushi, certain soft cheeses, all of my favorites,” she says in an Instagram video answering this question. “This timing [for IVF] was factored in from the beginning.”
But Gerardi doesn’t only have to juggle the timing of her pregnancy, delivery, and training.
There are also real concerns about how that training and space travel in general could impact her fertility and a future pregnancy. And unfortunately, existing space fertility research, especially in women, involves a lot of unanswered questions. Why? Much of the research is in its early days, says Aimee Eyvazzadeh, MD, a fertility specialist. This is largely because female astronauts are few and far between. As of April 2025, just over 100 women have made the life-altering trip to space.
Those parabolic training flights can also have potential negative effects on fertility due to possible ovulation disruption. And everyone traveling to space might possibly be compromising their continued fertility. Yep, space travel affects women’s and men’s fertility, says Fathi Karouia, PhD, a senior research scientist for NASA focused on space biology.
While animal studies have suggested that space travel doesn’t have a major impact on ovarian function, scientists aren’t completely sure how it might affect hormone levels and the ability to carry a pregnancy to term, says Karouia. In other words, we still don’t have the full picture of space travel and reproductive health. But some early studies have found that microgravity in space could disrupt essential ovulation and implantation hormones, that increased radiation exposure can damage eggs and embryos, and that the stress and physical demands of space missions can impact menstrual cycles. Scientists also know that space travel poses risks to sperm motility and quality, DNA integrity, and successful fertilization in male astronauts too, per Karouia.
For these reasons, Dr. Eyvazzadeh says, astronauts planning to conceive should go ahead and freeze their eggs, sperm, or even embryos before space travel to improve their chances of conceiving.
As researchers continue the slow but steady drive toward a better understanding of space and reproduction, Dr. Eyvazzadeh remains hopeful. “This research isn’t just about space travel; it could also lead to discoveries that improve reproductive health for everyone here on Earth,” she says.
IVF and Beyond
In the fall of 2024, Gerardi began her IVF treatment while continuing to train (she did skip the parabolic flights) and made the courageous decision to begin sharing her journey with her large social following. She updated her 1.4 million Instagram followers and 970,000-plus TikTok fans on her latest fertility thoughts, frustrations, and joys—and quickly realized that women going through similar experiences were cheering her on. “I hear the refrain a lot that it’s the worst club with the best people,” she says. “IVF is a club that no one wants to be in, but it’s full of incredibly supportive people who understand what the journey is like.”
In September of 2024, she documented the preparation for her first egg retrieval, posting funny voice-overs and videos about everything from injecting her medication to waking up from anesthesia post-retrieval to an Eras Tour outfit adjustment for her bloated body and her space-themed dress for her first IVF ultrasound. She danced around with Delta, explaining why she wants to try for another baby, and did candid emotional check-ins. The messages of love and support poured in.
Some comments were from fans updating Gerardi on their own journeys, but most just thanked her for her raw honesty. “IVF mama here sending you alllll the love and luck and space baby dust,” one follower commented. “Sending so much love and continued good vibes to you and anyone else that needs it today. This stuff is so hard. I did it for ten years, you are not alone. ❤️,” another reads.
And as any woman who has been through fertility treatment knows, having a community to lift you up is paramount. From IVF’s physical demands—frequent blood draws, injections, and ultrasounds—to its financial strain (treatments can cost anywhere from $15,000 to $30,000), each aspect of the process is challenging. Hormonal shifts heighten stress, and the constant waiting—for results, for next steps, for good news—adds to the psychological and physical burdens. Gerardi has worked to stay positive, but at times her stress level was through the roof.
It’s a “biting-my-lower-lip-until-it’s-raw kind of stress, because everything feels so consequential. And I think I’m just not used to having no ability to control any of the factors anymore,” she says. “You could have the fullest life imaginable, filled with different responsibilities and ambitions, but IVF becomes the A-plot of your life. Everything else takes a back seat.”
While Gerardi wishes she could have found a way to stay calm and focus on other things, “the honest truth is that I haven’t. [Infertility] is always in the background,” she says. “And I think some small part of it at least is that I’ve always been a very goal-oriented person. So it’s very hard for me to be pouring so much energy and emotion into something and to not be thinking about it 24/7.”
A month after her egg retrieval, Gerardi’s doctors told her that of the 24 eggs they had retrieved, she had only one chromosomally healthy embryo that could be transferred. In a raw and emotional TikTok video, her face wet with tears, she broke the news. “I feel like a hypocrite because this whole process I was just telling myself, ‘You only need one,’” she explains in the post. “And now I only have one.”
At that point, she had done all she could. “It’s now up to the embryo and my body,” she told WH in an interview prior to embryo transfer. “It’s a binary: I will either become pregnant or I won’t.”
Waiting for a ‘Space Baby’
And she did. On January 21, Gerardi shared the news in a tearful Instagram video. “Space Baby Coming This September,” the onscreen text flashes.
For nine weeks, she reveled in the good news. She knew that she wouldn’t be in the clear until her second ultrasound appointment, at which point she would officially “graduate” from her IVF clinic and be discharged to her regular ob-gyn for the rest of the pregnancy. (Many women wait until they’ve passed 12 weeks, or the end of the first trimester, to announce a pregnancy, as the majority of miscarriages occur in this time period.) But it didn’t matter. Gerardi chose to celebrate, to be hopeful, to embrace the present.
She took pictures for her pregnancy announcement alongside Delta. She ordered a cake for the gender reveal. She appeared on The Jennifer Hudson Show (a major, bucket-list achievement for Gerardi) to talk about her career and going to space in 2026. The extraordinary documentation of the IVF experience on her social media accounts even won a prestigious Webby Award in April of 2025. But through all the posts and celebrations, Gerardi’s most exciting moment was when she was able to break the news to one very special person: the now 7-year-old Delta, who was finally going to be a big sister.
Nine weeks into her pregnancy, an ultrasound appointment changed everything. Gerardi walked in expecting to have a celebratory appointment. But the doctor told her that the fetus didn’t have a heartbeat. “I feel like the next chapter of my life was pulled out from under me,” she says. “The silence from the doctor and nurse team during those first 30 seconds was deafening, and then hearing, ‘I’m not seeing a heartbeat’ was shattering.”
The physical toll of her recovery has been just as all-consuming as the fertility treatments. After learning the pregnancy was not viable, Gerardi underwent a dilation and curettage (D&C), a surgical procedure to remove pregnancy tissue, and initially experienced only mild discomfort and bleeding. But on the fourth day after her procedure, she began having intense contractions that lasted nearly 24 hours and then began to pass massive blood clots. She was terrified.
While doing some deep dives on Internet forums, Gerardi learned that this was actually a pretty normal experience to have after a D&C, “but it’s not discussed nearly enough,” she says. And she’s continued dealing with some aftereffects (her hCG, a hormone produced by the placenta when a woman is pregnant, was still elevated), which makes it hard for her to move forward, physically and mentally.
Despite the very real physical and emotional pain, Gerardi has no regrets about sharing her pregnancy news candidly, in real time, so early on. “I feel no shame, only sorrow,” she says. “Every single second of those nine precious weeks was worthy of celebration to me, and I have no regrets or embarrassment about inviting others to share in my joy. And now, on the other side, I can’t imagine suffering all of this in silence.”
For now, Gerardi is processing her loss and trying to steady herself in her new reality. She’s still determined to make space for both her dreams and her family’s future. But this wasn’t what she imagined, nor what she planned for. “I’m in this strange limbo where there’s nothing I can do except wait,” she says.
And she’s holding on tight to hope, even through her grief. Delta is helping. “My 7-year-old probably had the best outlook on all of this,” Gerardi says. “She told me, ‘Well, I told my friends it’s not that I’m not going to have a little brother or sister anymore. It’s just that I’m not having one right this second…right?’ And I told her that’s exactly right.”
In a late-March post, Gerardi gently holds a gold-dipped rose—a gift from her husband to remember the embryo they lost—as she tells her followers she’ll be undergoing another egg retrieval in April. Indeed, Gerardi began a new IVF cycle this week, which also just so happens to be National Infertility Awareness Week.
“There’s a vision board I’ve always had for my life, and I intend to live out that reality,” she writes in the post from March. “I can accept that it might not be on the timeline I hoped or the specific way I imagined, but I refuse to accept that any of my dreams aren’t meant for me.”
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