I think understanding it and thinking it’s ridiculous are two different things…
Yesterday, six women took a Blue Origin rocket into outer space for an 11-minute space flight, which included Gayle King, Katy Perry, Amanda Nguyen, Aisha Bowe, Lauren Sánchez and Kerianne Flynn. Katy Perry has been making a lot of headlines leading up to the trip, and all of them seemed excited about this wild adventure… well, everyone except for CBS News co-host, the aforementioned Gayle King.
Honestly, saying they actually went into outer space is kind of a stretch because Blue Origin takes you to the edge of space. Blue Origin takes passengers to the Kármán line, the 62-mile (100 km) altitude considered the boundary of space. However, Blue Origin’s New Shepard are not ships that orbit Earth like the traditional NASA rocket launches we see. And just for reference, the international Space Station orbits at around 250 miles from the Earth’s surface.
Welcome to West Texas, NS-31 crew! pic.twitter.com/8dFPqiaiZW
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) April 13, 2025
At 9:30 am, the rocket took off and the flight was a complete success, but as someone who also hates (probably not even a strong enough word) to fly, I sympathize with Gayle King and how nervous she was to go through with the trip… the woman did not look well beforehand and she became a viral meme:
The Blue Origin all-female crew, including Katy Perry, have launched into Space. pic.twitter.com/18Oo6GAnOa
— Pop Base (@PopBase) April 14, 2025
Before they left, Lauren, the fiancée of billionaire Amazon and Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos, said much of the trip was aimed at making space-wear (I guess that’s what I’m calling it?), more suitable to women and their fashion preferences… seems really unnecessary to me, but whatever. They have the money, so knock yourself out, I guess.
✨ Weightless and limitless. pic.twitter.com/GQgHd0aw7i
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) April 14, 2025
But the group of women have received a lot of criticism online, and by other celebrities even, for the gluttonous nature of the whole thing and the fact that there genuinely was no point in this other than getting press… they didn’t explore, or actually do anything while in space… they were up there for less than ten minutes. Again, it’s their money and company, but something about it does feel kind of dystopian. I’ve seen tons of people comparing it to The Hunger Games:
Call me pessimistic but I’m sick of the billion dollar space bullshit when people are starving and homeless on the ground. It’s giving Hunger Games Capital https://t.co/k01qHGwrdU
— Jake O’Kane (@jakeo_kane) April 14, 2025
But King and Sánchez fired back at critics, telling People that there’s just something us normal people don’t get about it… King said specifically:
“Anybody that’s criticizing it doesn’t really understand what is happening here. We can all speak to the response we’re getting from young women from young girls about what this represents.”
Sánchez added that she thinks it’s important that people not forget about how much Blue Origin employees pour into these projects, if you will, and it shouldn’t be dismissed:
“I get really fired up. I would love to have them come to Blue Origin and see the thousands of employees that don’t just work here but they put their heart and soul into this vehicle. They love their work and they love the mission and it’s a big deal for them. So when we hear comments like that, I just say, ‘Trust me. Come with me. I’ll show you what this is about, and it’s, it’s really eye-opening.'”
I don’t think people have an issue with private companies doing stuff like this, but the whole to-do with all the celebrities under this big guise of “progress” and “barrier breaking”… there’s something off about that, especially when there are so many, quite literally, real-world issues going on back here on planet earth.
I don’t expect someone marrying a billionaire to totally understand what most normal people are dealing with, but c’mon… pretending like it’s crazy for people to criticize it makes them look even more out-of-touch than I could’ve imagined they already are.
