On Monday, April 14th, famous pop singer and songwriter Katy Perry embarked on a brief spaceflight with Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company, Blue Origin. Perry was joined by five other crew members, including CBS News woman Gayle King and Bezos’s fiancée, Lauren Sánchez. The journey, which lasted approximately ten minutes, took the group just past the Kármán line, the imaginary or hypothetical boundary of space, before safely returning to Earth, landing in Texas. During their time in space, the crew took photos and floated around the cabin, capturing their experience.
While the mission was intended to be inspirational, it was widely criticized as indulgent and wasteful. Perry stated that she intended to “model courage, worthiness, and fearlessness,” but her actions only brought controversy. Perry faced notable criticism for her dramatic reaction upon returning to Earth, seen kissing the ground in apparent relief after landing. Additional footage from inside the craft showed her waving at an interior camera while holding a daisy (presumably a reference to her daughter, Daisy). The pop star also used the spaceflight as a promotional opportunity, revealing the setlist for her upcoming “Lifetimes Tour” on the same video feed.
This reaction had many mocking the shortness of the flight and questioning its purpose. La Jolla High School senior Inji Hamdoun says, “I really thought it was weird that she came back and kissed the ground. I thought, I don’t know, it was strange,” while junior Anabel Weinstein added, “I don’t think that celebrities should be going into space. I feel like using gas to go into space and hurting the environment just for celebrities to see space is not the way it should be done.”
Social media users have been having opinions about Perry’s choice to enter space. One user by the name of Rhonda (@SilverARTicfox) said, “Crazy how Katy Perry and Lauren Sanchez going to ‘space’ for 10 minutes is supposed to ‘inspire women,’ but the women who already worked at NASA are getting fired…”