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St. Pete woman with a love for space hopes to inspire younger generations with new book

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Published  December 16, 2024 6:28pm EST
St. Petersburg
FOX 13 News

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Every time SpaceX, Blue Origin, NASA, or anyone else tests their rockets, Emily Carney is intensely interested.

"The last few test flights I've watched, I can't believe this is happening," she said. 

"I love math and science. When I was growing up [in the 1980s], women were not really steered toward that," Carney said. 

READ: UF researchers study how to grow food on the moon

However, she set a course for the Navy, went into nuclear propulsion, and now her Facebook group called "Space Hipsters" has more than 60,000 members. 

"I tend to look very long into the future," said the St. Petersburg resident. "I think that in 100 years people will be living in space permanently." 

But, like many her age and younger, there was a blind spot.

Memories that some have of the first manned mission to the Moon simply aren't in the memories of many others, because they were born after 1969.

MORE: Astronomers take the first close-up picture of a dying star outside of Milky Way

"I feel like there are a lot of Gen Z and Gen Alpha with gaps there," said Carney. 

She's filling in those gaps with a book called "Star Bound" and subtitled "The American Space Program, from Goddard’s rockets to Goldilocks Planets and Everything in Between." It's co-authored with Bruce McCandless, the son of a NASA astronaut. 

They write about the past, present and future of space, hoping to ignite in others the passion they feel about the possibilities. 

"Lunar Water for example, that could be turned into some kind of fuel and maybe ships could be launched into deeper space," she said. 

Carney hoped to bring understanding and excitement for a whole new crop of Space Nerds who may look more like her. 

"I could do it," she said. "Maybe I could inspire another young woman to do something similar."

For more information on the book "Star Bound," click here. 

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