Monday’s all-woman Blue Origin joy ride space flight is getting tons of attention… just not in the way its participants were probably expecting. Celebrity passengers Katy Perry and Gayle King, plus the CEO’s fiancee Lauren Sanchez, safely returned to earth full of euphoria and girl-power talking points (despite having flown in quite possibly the world’s most phallic looking rocket). But they experienced a metaphorical crash landing upon reentry as waves of people lambasted the astronomical expense of the trip for a mere 10 minutes in zero gravity, particularly against the backdrop of the fall of the American government. I genuinely believe the backlash has taken the ladies by surprise (whether it should have or not), and their responses so far only further show that they’re completely missing the crux of the outrage:
Gayle King and Lauren Sánchez have clapped back at those criticizing them for participating in the all-female Blue Origin NS-13 mission.
The star-studded team of women — that also included Katy Perry, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, ex-NASA engineer Aisha Bowe, and film producer Kerianne Flynn — became the first all-women crew to visit space since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova took a solo flight in 1963.
However, celebrities like Amy Schumer, Olivia Wilde, and Olivia Munn appeared less than pleased that the women were participating in the historic space mission and made either opinions known publicly.
King, 70, addressed the criticism hours after landing on the successful 11 minutes in space.
“Anybody that’s criticizing it doesn’t really understand what is happening here,” the journalist told People.
“We can all speak to the response we’re getting from young women from young girls about what this represents.”
The fiancee of Blue Origin founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos also responded to some of those criticisms shortly after the launch and said it only got her more “fired up.”
“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,” Sánchez, 55, told the outlet.
“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.”
…Blue Origin’s New Shepard 31 launched at 9:30 a.m. from the company’s West Texas base, carrying all six crewmates.
Like with previous space tourism missions, Blue Origin designed a special insignia for the women’s space suits, featuring all their names and a wink to each of their works and ambitions.
It shouldn’t be this hard, right? Olivia Wilde, Olivia Munn and Emily Ratajkowski aren’t criticizing the fact that it was all women, or the fact that literal rocket scientists love the cutting edge work they do. It’s about millionaires and a soon-to-be Mrs. Billionaire aboard a flight that’s brief duration in no way justifies the exorbitant cost and destructive environmental impact. Then add on top of that, the total lack of reading the room as millions and billions of life-saving funds are being wantonly stripped from our federal government, by our federal government. And for Lauren to say, “come meet the Blue Origin employees, they love their work!” is a bit rich. I wish a reporter had followed up with, “obviously not including the 10% who were just laid off, among them heavily-degreed, wicked smart women.” Frankly, I think there’d be much more public goodwill towards an all-women flight of Blue Origin’s own engineers, getting to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Or, you know, you could take the cost of the space flights and pay all the Blue Origin and Amazon employees better salaries, but that would be crazy, I guess.
Lastly, this comment from Gayle: “Anybody that’s criticizing it doesn’t really understand what is happening here.” With all due respect, anybody who’s offended by the criticism doesn’t really understand what is happening HERE, on planet earth.
Photos credit: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon, Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon and via Instagram