Are you a wealthy narcissist who thinks Jeff Bezos is a super cool guy? Great news: If you match that description, you can sign up to go to space today! Yeah, that ~female empowerment~ space trip with Gayle King, Katy Perry, and Lauren Sánchez was actually an ad. The rocket took off from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in Texas at 9:30 a.m. EST, and at the end of the 11-minute trip, there was a commercial for Blue Origin, Jeff’s space tech company. “Book your flight,” the ad encouraged viewers. “Purchase a window seat on a life-changing spaceflight.” There’s a sign-up form and everything. Apparently, 143 flopped so hard that Katy’s an influencer for Jeff now! ( I’m once again feeling relieved that I’m not a Katy cat.) Here’s everything to know about the NS-31 all-female spaceflight and how it was a Blue Origin publicity stunt.
For weeks, this spaceflight has been branded primarily as an exciting, historic moment for a women. The flight included Katy Perry, Gayle King, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics research scientist and civil rights activist Amanda Nguyễn, film producer Kerianne Flynn, and Jeff Bezos’ fiancé, Lauren Sánchez. It was the first all-female spaceflight since 1963 when the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, did a three-day solo flight.
Elle‘s April digital cover features the spaceflight girlies posing in all-black fits with the headline: “For All Womankind.” During their interview with the magazine, Katy declared that “space is going to finally be glam.” She added, “If I could take glam up with me, I would do that. We are going to put the ‘ass’ in astronaut.” Try not to cringe challenge! After coming back to Earth, she claimed that this was all about “making space for future women, and taking up space and belonging.” Right, that’s what it’s all about. Babe… If you care so much about future women, why are you supporting a man who’s besties with T*ump?
The feminism girlboss branding conveniently distracts from the following facts: Jeff is a scumbag billionaire who was front row at our current president’s inauguration, and this space mission was more about advertising Blue Origin trips than it was about empowering women. “It’s this generation’s job to build a road to space, so that future generations can unleash their creativity,” the space tech company’s website reads. Actually, could we just send Jeff, the other billionaires, and T*ump to space and never bring them back? That’s me unleashing my creativity. We could also use those tens of millions of dollars to give people health insurance, food, housing, education, etc. More creativity unleashed right there.
I fear this may be the first of many influencer trips that require a rocket… Don’t be surprised if the next Tarte trip is in space. Brianna Chickenfry, Tana Mongeau, and Alix Earle are probably about to be the third all-female spaceflight in history. Sigh.
