 "Blue Origin's all-women crew for the space mission. It included pop star Katy Perry, Bezos’s fiancee Lauren Sanchez, aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, film producer Kerianne Flynn and, CBS Mornings host Gayle King. Image Courtesy: @blueorigin/Instagram")
Celebrity space travel is garnering buzz everywhere. This comes after Blue Origin, the space company owned by Jeff Bezos, successfully carried out an all-women mission on Monday (April 14), sending six women just above the Kármán line — the imaginary border of Earth’s atmosphere — before returning safely to Texas.
But not everyone is impressed with the space mission, it appears. The six women, including pop star Katy Perry, Bezos’s fiancee Lauren Sanchez, aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, film producer Kerianne Flynn and, CBS Mornings host Gayle King, are now at the receiving end of harsh criticism from several corners of the world, with many calling the entire situation as “gluttonous” and “beyond parody”.
An out-of-this-world journey!
On April 14, Bezos’ Blue Origin successfully launched his fiancée Lauren Sanchez and five other women into space, providing them a few precious minutes of weightlessness. After almost 11 minutes, the six touched down on Earth with Perry and King kneeling and kissing the ground. “Oh my God, that was amazing,” said King, who considers herself an anxious airplane flyer.
Three hours later, Sanchez said she was still trying to process everything. “Profound is like the one word I would use,” she said.
The mission, which marked the first for an all-female space crew since 1963, was marketed as a feminist landmark − a chance to see mothers and female storytellers launch toward the heavens.
Criticism galore for Blue Origin’s women’s crew
However, it appears that Blue Origin’s marketing has missed the mark. Instead, it has riled people across the board, with even fellow celebrities questioning all of it.
In fact, Hollywood actor Olivia Munn questioned the flight’s objective earlier in the month. In a television appearance on April 3, she said, “I know this probably isn’t the cool thing to say, but there are so many other things that are so important in the world right now. What are you guys gonna do up in space? What are you doing up there?
“I know this is probably obnoxious,” she continued, “but like, it’s so much money to go to space, and there’s a lot of people who can’t even afford eggs.”
She further called the flight “a bit gluttonous”, because “space exploration was to further our knowledge and to help mankind”. “What are they gonna do up there that has made it better for us down here?”
Many others also pondered the purpose of Perry and company’s space mission. While some called it silly, others lambasted it for being wasteful and self-indulgent.
And the deluge of such criticism continued even after the all-women crew landed down on Earth. Model and actor Emily Ratajkowski spoke out against the mission, posting on TikTok, “That space mission this morning? That’s end time s**t. This is beyond parody.”
She further stated, “You say that you care about Mother Earth, and it’s about Mother Earth, and you’re going up in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that’s single-handedly destroying the planet,” she added. “Look at the state of the world and think about how many resources went into putting these women into space. For what?”
Voicing similar disapproval was Amy Schumer. She posted a sarcastic video in which she announced that she got a last-minute invitation to join the mission. “Guys, last second they added me to space and I’m going to space,” the comedian joked while holding up a Black Panther toy. “I’m bringing this thing. It has no meaning to me, but it was in my bag and I was on the subway, and I got the text and they were like, ‘Do you want to go to space?’ so I’m going to space.”
“Thank you to everyone who got me here and I’ll see you guys in space,” she added with the caption “space”.
Olivia Wilde, too, jumped on the bandwagon. The Hollywood star reposted a meme of Perry kissing the ground after leaving the capsule and wrote, “Billion dollar bought some good memes I guess.”
Others too slammed the space mission with one social media commentator writing, “They acted like it was a win for feminism. The money used to send them to space could have been used to actually help women in so many ways.”
But it wasn’t just celebrities and social media users being critical of the space mission. The media also got in on the action, writing columns such as “So Katy Perry went to space. Wasn’t there anyone else we could have sent?” in The Guardian.
Marcie Bianco, a reputed writer, editor, and cultural critic, wrote in a CNBC report, “Monday’s “historic” mission is nothing less than a show of identity politics thinly cloaking the American capitalist impulse of the “more is better” mentality. The glamour shots of the six women in their suits — looking serious but sexy, their partly unzipped suits flashing just a bit of skin — are proof of how this faux feminism mutilates real feminist politics and turns it into an aesthetic posture.”
Some even pointed out the hypocrisy of the all-women mission; it comes at a time when Bezos’ Amazon has rolled back its DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programme.
Gayle King, Lauren Sanchez hit back at critics
However, the women who went to space expressed their disappointment at the criticism that the mission had received. Speaking on CBS Mornings, Gayle King said, “Space is not an either or, it’s a both and, and because you do something in space doesn’t mean you’re taking anything away from Earth. And what you’re doing in space is trying to make things better here on Earth.”
“There was nothing frivolous about what we do,” she further added. “So, you know, I’m very disappointed and very saddened by it [the criticism]. And I also say this — what it’s doing to inspire other women and young girls? Please don’t ignore that. I’ve had so many women and young girls reach out to me, and men too, by the way. Men too that say, ‘Wow, I never thought I could do that, but I see you doing it at this stage of your life’.”
King also told People magazine on Monday that “anybody that’s criticising it doesn’t really understand what is happening here.”
Sanchez, too, defended the space mission, saying those criticising it were missing the big point. “I get really fired up when I hear criticism. I invite them to see the thousands of employees at Blue Origin who pour their hearts into this work. It’s not just a job — it’s a mission they love.”
With inputs from agencies