Blue Origin’s NS-31 flight carried Katy Perry, Gayle King and four other women on a suborbital journey completed on April 14, 2025. The criticism that followed was about more than the flight itself: critics questioned its spectacle, its association with extreme wealth and what public value it offered. King defended the experience as meaningful, while the evidence available does not settle how much scientific or broader public benefit the mission produced.
What happened on the Blue Origin all-women flight?
NS-31 was Blue Origin’s 31st New Shepard mission and its 11th human spaceflight, according to the company’s April 14, 2025 announcement. The six-person crew was Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyễn, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn and Lauren Sánchez. They launched from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas. Blue Origin’s mission announcement
Blue Origin described the crew as the first all-female crewed flight since Valentina Tereshkova’s 1963 spaceflight. The distinction matters: Tereshkova flew alone, while NS-31 had six crew members. Blue Origin also said the mission brought the total number of people flown by New Shepard to 58, including four repeat flyers. That was the company’s post-flight count; before launch, on February 27, it had said the program had flown 52 people above the Kármán line.
Why did people criticize Katy Perry’s space flight?
In a report published April 15, 2025, Futurism’s Victor Tangermann described criticism focused on luxury, publicity, inequality and whether a celebrity space trip offered meaningful public benefit. The report gives examples, not a representative measure of public opinion.
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- Olivia Wilde mocked the cost and questioned the flight’s value, writing, as reported by Futurism, “Billion dollars bought some good memes I guess.” The report does not establish a verified total cost for NS-31.
- Comedian Amy Schumer responded with a satirical video.
- Emily Ratajkowski criticized the event’s optics, arguing that a spectacle involving extreme wealth was not the same as meaningful progress amid ordinary economic pressures.
- Nina Turner connected the flight to taxation and healthcare, saying, as reported by Futurism, “If Jeff Bezos can send Katy Perry into space, he can pay a wealth tax so every American has debt-free healthcare.”
These reactions framed the trip as a symbol of who can access space and what such access is for. They show specific objections voiced by public figures; they do not demonstrate how widespread those views were.
Why did Gayle King say it was “not a joyride”?
King’s defense emphasized the journey’s personal meaning and the response she said she heard from young women and girls. Futurism quoted her saying, “Anybody that’s criticizing doesn’t really understand what is happening here,” and later: “This is a freaking journey,” and “It was not a joyride.”
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Blue Origin’s own framing was that the crew could share their experience as storytellers and inspire others. That is the company’s stated rationale, not independent evidence that the flight had a measurable inspirational effect. King’s account and the critics’ objections address different questions: whether the experience mattered to participants and audiences, and whether a costly, high-profile flight delivered enough broader public value.
Did the flight include scientific research?
Yes, Blue Origin said before launch that Aisha Bowe would conduct three experiments, including studies involving plant biology and human physiology. This was the operator’s description of planned work. The cited materials do not establish the experiments’ results or independently evaluate their scientific significance, so it would be inaccurate to say the flight had no research component—or to treat the planned experiments as proof of substantial public benefit.
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What the available evidence does—and does not—show
| Question | What is established | What remains unestablished |
|---|---|---|
| What was the flight? | Blue Origin says NS-31 completed April 14, 2025, with six crew members; it was the program’s 31st mission and 11th human spaceflight. | The cited sources do not independently assess the mission’s overall value. |
| Was there research? | Blue Origin announced three experiments planned for Aisha Bowe, including plant biology and human physiology studies. | The cited sources do not report outcomes or independently evaluate the work. |
| Did it inspire people? | King said she was hearing responses from young women and girls; Blue Origin presented the crew as potential inspiration. | No quantified or independent measure of the flight’s inspirational impact is established. |
| How broad was the backlash? | Futurism reported examples of criticism from named public figures. | The cited reporting does not establish representative public opinion. |
| What did the flight cost or emit? | No verified total cost or quantified environmental-impact estimate is established in the cited sources. | Those figures cannot be responsibly inferred from the reported reactions. |
The argument is therefore not resolved simply by calling the flight either a joyride or an inspiration. The documented facts establish a crewed suborbital mission, an operator-announced research plan and a set of sharply divided public-figure reactions. They do not establish the research outcomes, a representative public verdict or a quantified measure of the trip’s wider costs and benefits.
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Sources
- Futurism, Victor Tangermann, “Zillionaire Girlbosses Astonished by Backlash to Their Frivolous Trip to Space,” April 15, 2025 — reporting and attributed reactions.
- Blue Origin, “Blue Origin’s New Shepard Rocket Completes 31st Mission To Space,” April 14, 2025 — mission facts, crew, company framing and the earlier announcement of planned experiments.
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