The Blue Origin space ship took off in Texas on April 14, 2025. Pop star Katy Perry, billionaire Jeff Bezos wife, Lauren Sánchez, CBS mornings co-host, Gayle King, film producer Kerianne Flynn, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe and lastly, bioastronautics research scientist Amanda Nguyen. These eight women were on the Blue Origin spacecraft for a total of 11 minutes.
Blue Origin is a private space company founded by Jeff Bezos. He founded the company in the year 2000. The goal of Blue Origin is to make space more accessible as well as develop reusable capsules. Although the purpose is for trips to be more environmentally friendly, many argue that this “ride” was a waste of resources and carbon dioxide. The ship claimed to only realise water vapor, however water vapor is still classified as a greenhouse gas, still making it harmful to the environment.
Sophomore Taylor Lang shared her thoughts on this infamous trip to space.
“It feels like they are just wasting resources and money when these celebrities could be putting money into important causes,” Lang said.
Critics also argue that Blue Origin’s approach to space tourism is not as accessible as they may seem to think. These trips are extremely high-cost and not accessible to anyone short of a millionaire.
According to an article in the BBC, “Although Blue Origin has not released full ticket prices, a $150,000 (£114,575.85) deposit is required to reserve a seat—underlining the exclusivity of these early flights.”
Given that the deposit to reserve a seat is so expensive the actual price of the seat likely costs millions of dollars. This price ultimately leaves those seats exclusively to celebrities and billionaires. The expenses of this 11-minute trip have struck controversy amongst social media. Many bring up how these funds could’ve gone towards any important cause in the world and not towards a brief trip to space seemingly for fun. Some viewers also agree that trips like this bring the wrong message around space travel. Celebrities go to space for entertainment while the actual scientists and astronauts who go for research do not get nearly as much attention.
The entire launch into space was recorded and posted for all to see. The video has been going viral throughout social media and the news and there has been considerable pushback from viewers. This video is rubbing a lot of people the wrong way especially in regards to Perry’s behavior once in space. As everyone was floating around the rocket without gravity and admiring the view, Perry was seen as one of the main focal points of the video just staring into the camera with various items such as a dandelion in her hand. This video snippet has become somewhat of a meme on social media outlets like TikTok because of the amount of people pointing out how seemingly ridiculous she was being. As well as displaying her dandelion into the camera she also took time to promote the setlist to her upcoming tour.
It struck many as really strange that instead of taking these 11 minutes to soak in the beauty of the planet and universe around her she seemed to use a large amount of it directly in front of the camera.
Perry has also received backlash for dropping to her knees and kissing the ground as soon as she stepped out of the capsule. Many found this act tone deaf and overall dramatic. Viewers also brought up the fact that NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams were recently stranded in space for nine months after a capsule malfunction. Perry’s behavior rubbed many the wrong way considering she was in space for only a total of 11 minutes.
Senior Darius Tyson also shared his opinions on Katy Perry’s involvement on this voyage.
“I think it was kind of unnecessary for Katy Perry to go to space, if they were going for science I think I would feel differently.” Tyson said.
In Perry’s song “E.T.,” she says “Take me, ta-ta-take me, wanna be your victim ready for abduction” but maybe she should stay on Earth from now on.
