On April 14, the Blue Origin Rocket took Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn and Lauren Sánchez to space for a total of eleven minutes. Vast media attention was brought to the flight considering the women are pretty well-known public figures, but much of the spectacle also brought up a lot of frustrations to the public.Â
Blue Origin, the company that sent the women to space, was founded by Jeff Bezos in 2000 with the goal of making space more accessible to everyone, along with the purpose of restoring Earth. However, it seems that the company may be more interested in making money off space by making it a tourist destination.Â
Blue Origin does not disclose the cost of their seats, but it does require a $150,000 deposit, making it unlikely that the average person is buying a seat on a Blue Origin flight. This seems contradictory to the company’s initial objective of making space more accessible.Â
Not to mention, the environmental impact of going into space is significant. Blue Origin uses both liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen engines. Although there is no direct use of fossil fuels, the exhaust from the launch can affect the upper atmosphere and contribute to climate change, working against the company’s so-called goal of restoring Earth.Â
This makes you wonder why rich celebrities need to be taking trips into space rather than spending those resources to protect life on Earth? With millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet, increasing grocery prices and talks of a recession, the headlining news being Katy Perry taking a trip to space seems rather untimely.Â
The trip has also been highly advertised as the first all female crew to be going to space, with the passengers often saying they’re “taking up space” and taking a large step for women. However, many have expressed that the marketing tactic is a mask to cover the fact that the flight is just putting more money in the pockets of the wealthy.Â
There is discourse surrounding the fact that this is all to support and promote Jeff Bezos company, not about advancing opportunities for women. Attempting to label the trip as a monumental step towards equal opportunity seems to be a distraction from the real goal of making money off of space tourism.Â
It seems as though the conversation surrounding women in space should be more focused towards the astronauts who have spent their lives dedicated to space exploration. Over one hundred women have been in space and bringing light to their accomplishments and speaking on future opportunities for women in space exploration may be a more productive conversation.Â
Although many valid points about the advertisement of the all women crew have been made, the backlash does seem to pose the question, would men receive the same criticism? A number of men have traveled to space for tourism, including Jeff Bezos, yet there was not a large outcry towards them. This once again shows the disproportional standards set on women.Â
Ultimately, it seems as though the money that went towards sending these six women into space could have been better spent solving issues here on Earth. Their short voyage proved to be underwhelming and frustrating to the public. However, it seems the discourse needs to be focused on the issue of space tourism as a whole, rather than this singular controversial flight.