By Jacinth Banite
April 14, 2025 was probably a typical Monday for most people on Earth, but not for the six mostly rich and famous women who took part in the first female-only spaceflight since 1963.
Jeff Bezos’ space technology company Blue Origin was behind the highly marketed venture, featuring pop star Katy Perry, broadcast journalist Gayle King and Bezos’ fiancee Lauren Sanchez.
Film producer Kerianne Flynn, civil rights activist and bioastronautics researcher Amanda Nguyen and aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe were also involved.
The launch from Van Horn, Texas drew a notable crowd, with Oprah Winfrey, Kris Jenner and Khloe Kardashian in attendance, amassing huge media coverage.
But not everyone across the globe was impressed by the star-studded, ultra-expensive 11-minute journey, with many social media users perceiving the mission as a tone-deaf publicity stunt rather than a celebration of female empowerment.
Keyboard warriors, influencers weigh in
People on the internet pointed out how Monday’s spaceflight was more “consumer capitalism” than progress in gender equality.
Some said it was done to promote space tourism that is only accessible to the rich.
“Basically an amusement park ride for the rich and elite,” one Facebook user wrote under Blue Origin’s event post.
“I am embarrassed that they think this counts as a remarkable achievement for women when this was clearly just an expensive roller coaster ride,” another commenter said.
Many singled out Perry in their sentiments against the Blue Origin mission. They pointed to what The Economic Times described as “awkward promotional activities… to advertise her daughter and her upcoming tour, with paper butterflies and daisies” during the space experience.
On TikTok, netizens called out how the presence of Nguyen and Bowe, the only scientists in the crew, was overshadowed by Perry’s publicity ploy.
One influencer, “Soogia,” Congratulated Nguyen and Bowe in an April 16 post, saying the two were the only ones that had any business being “on that, or any spacecraft.”
People in her comment section shared the same sentiments.
“Katy Perry acting like her going to space is doing the most for feminism with Amanda Nguyen standing RIGHT THERE,” one wrote.
“It’s honestly such an insult to real astronauts,” another one said.
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Mockery from fellow celebrities
Several personalities in Hollywood also publicly took a dig at Perry and Blue Origin’s trip to space.
On Instagram, actor-director Olivia Wilde posted in her story a meme showing the singer holding up a daisy flower in tribute to her daughter of the same name, and kissing the ground on her return to Earth.
The meme’s caption reads “getting off a commercial flight in 2025 #BlueOrigin,” in reference to a spate of airline incidents this year.
Wilde said in her instagram story: “Billion dollars bought some good memes I guess.”
On the same platform, comedian Amy Schumer posted a sarcastic video of herself saying she got “a last-minute” invitation to join the Blue Origin mission 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,” she joked.
While not directly referring to Perry, model and actor Emily Ratajkowski slammed Monday’s spaceflight as “beyond parody,” stressing she was “disgusted” by it, The Guardian reported.
“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,” Ratajkowski lamented.
“Look at the state of the world and think about how many resources went into putting these women into space. For what?”
On X (formerly Twitter), Jessica Chastain reposted an opinion piece titled “The Blue Origin flight showcased the utter defeat of American feminism.”
In the peace, The Guardian columnist Moira Donegan argued that the flight “served as a kind of perverse funeral for the America that once enabled both scientific advancement and feminist progress – a spectacle that mocked these aspirations by appropriating them for such an indulgent and morally hollow purpose.”
The April 14 launch marked Blue Origin’s 11th human spaceflight and 31st space mission under the company’s New Shepard programme.
It was declared as the second all-female space mission throughout the history of humanity, the first one being a solo mission by Soviet-era cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova more than 60 years ago.
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Wendellyn Mateo 
Simon Wilkes