Back in 2023, I reported that after Blue Origin turned science fiction into fact, launching William Shatner, Captain James T. Kirk of “Star Trek” fame, into suborbital space, it had planned its next private space launch featuring an all-female crew.
In a move that follows the lead of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Artemis program, the billionaire Jeff Bezos-headed firm organized a mission led by his girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez.
Today, that mission, known as NS-31, was successfully executed.
Pop star Katy Perry and five other women safely returned to Earth after reaching space aboard Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket.The singer was joined by Bezos’s fiancée Lauren Sánchez and CBS presenter Gayle King, who said a highlight of the flight was hearing Perry sing Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”.After landing back on Earth, Perry said she felt “super connected to life” and “so connected to love”.The flight lasted around 11 minutes and took the six women more than 100km (62 miles) above Earth, crossing the internationally recognised boundary of space and giving them a few moments of weightlessness.
Blue Origin is a private firm, and the Bezos team is certainly welcome to celebrate achieving its goal. Rather than attempting to emulate Musk in sending mankind to Mars, Blue Origin appears to be trying to capture the space tourism market. Hence, all the pop stars and glitterati.
“It’s about making space for future women and taking up space and belonging. And it’s about this wonderful world that we see right out there and appreciating it,” Perry added. “This is all for the benefit of Earth.”It was also a huge benefit to Bezo’s space outfit. Prior to the highly publicized launch, all six passengers did a lengthy Elle magazine interview in which they pledged to go to space glammed up with makeup and fake eyelashes.Blue Origin is trying to operate regular space tourism flights, and taking reservations with a $150,000 deposit. It’s not clear how much Blue Origin charges, but a seat on the company’s first crewed flight went for $28 million.
However, the attempts to make this event into a seminal “girl power” moment are imploding. Some have argued that the “glamornauts” have set feminism back due to the focus on space fashion.
Katy Perry has also been drinking from the same fountain of delusional self-indulgence: ‘I’m really excited…We are all made of stardust and it’ll be exciting to see them twinkle from that site and have such an appreciation for Mother Earth when we see it that way’. She went on to suggest the trip would encourage young girls to go into space in the future with ‘no limitations’. Really? Previous passenger trips with Blue Origin have cost more than $1 million (£760,000) a seat. Only for rich girls, then.It has been reported that the crew trained for all of two days ahead of the trip. Rather depressingly, much of the coverage of their journey into space featured talk of flared jump suits and other fashion accessories. The female crew appeared more than happy with this agenda, saying that lipstick, eyelash extensions and hair styles matter. The bible of female empowerment, according to Katy Perry, goes like this: ‘Space is finally going to be glam…We are going to put the “ass” in “astronaut”’.
Beege Welborne of Hot Air provides the correct context of what the moment actually meant.
God bless America, no?At least, whatever the circumstances, these frothy adventurers can say they went for a real rocket ride, and that’s pretty cool.Whatever pretentiousness emerges afterward is no harm, no foul. Gayle King’s show is tanking – this won’t save it. Katy Perry will keep singing, Sanchez will have new surgical enhancements and won’t spare the world the viewing.Basically, the girls went up and down, and that was that. Zero effect on our lives other than the opportunity for continued hilarity..
And, to be fair, if I were brave enough to make the ride, I am sure I would express great excitement.
In the end, these women are not astronauts…but glamorous space tourists. And if they are willing to help fund and promote space trips which may enhance the American space program, I am just fine with that.
But real astronauts working in space return wearing substantially less make-up.
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