A six (wo)manned flight, which most notably included Katy Perry, took a brief and pointless trip to space on April 14, sparking outrage and pointed opinions from the public.
The six women on the rocket by Blue Origin, a company founded by Jeff Bezos, included: Perry, Bezos’s girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez, TV host Gayle King, movie producer Kerianne Flynn, civil rights activist Amanda Nyugen, and NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe thrown in for good measure.
The women traveled on New Shepard Rocket. The trip lasted 11 minutes in total, with seven minutes for departure and return, and a full four minutes in space. During the expedition, Perry refused to sing one of her own songs and instead performed, to the request of no one,“What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong.
Perry justified this costly and brief visit to space under the guise of “feminism.” In reality, her opportunity was based more on her celebrity status. There are thousands of highly qualified women who have genuinely put in hard work to further the knowledge of space, including Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, to name a few. None of these women, however, despite numerous achievements, were able to go to space.
Perry went instead.
The team acted as if the trip was a groundbreaking and empowering event because it was the first of its kind…since 1963. The supposed purpose of this trip was to launch the first all-female trip to space. In reality, Russian astronaut Valentina Tereshkova traveled to space alone six decades earlier.
This 11 minute flight “created more carbon emissions than one billion people produce in a lifetime,” according to AP News. This is an absolutely baffling and infuriating statement, considering the environmental crisis the world is currently struggling with.
In addition to the ridiculous amount of pollution the flight created, it was also unnecessarily expensive. It can also cost up to $28 million for an average person to attend a flight to space with Blue Origin; however, Perry was likely able to attend for free due to her status.
Perry’s actions surrounding the mission reflects her out-of-touch character. Upon landing, Perry kissed the ground (and she liked it), as if she had been up there for longer than four minutes. Even as her trip emitted an absurd amount of carbon, she claimed to CBS Reporters, “This is all for the benefit of the Earth.”
The trip was simply another day for selfish celebrities such as Perry. The group wasted millions of dollars and created unfathomable amounts of carbon emissions to “fulfill her dreams” and promote her upcoming tour.
While the rest of the world is doing its best to be environmentally friendly and working on fixing problems on Earth, millionaires like Perry visit space for 11 minutes.
