Katy Perry's Flight with Blue Origin 

On April 14th, 2025, Pop star Katy Perry participated in a Blue Origin space flight with six other high-profile women. Marking a notable moment in the growing trend of celebrity space travel. However, what was recognized about this flight was not the space travel aspect of this flight, but the response of the internet, especially towards Katy. 

Blue Origin, owned by Jeff Bezos, is a commercial spaceflight organization, which describes  itself as “space tourism.” The flights on the New Shepard rocket take passengers to space for a short period of time, allowing them to experience a less high-stakes version of space travel. Blue Origin's goal is to make space travel more accessible to the public, but with a cost of anywhere from 2 to 4 million, it is really only accessible to the 1%. Katy’s trip was with an all-female crew, featuring Gayle King, Lauren Sánchez, Aisha Bowe (former NASA rocket scientist), Amanda Nguyen (civil rights activist), and Kerianne Flynn (film producer). 

The flight was incredibly hyped-up, with people discussing it for days beforehand, so many were shocked when the flight returned after just 11 minutes. “Kary Perry going to space for 11 minutes why’d I think it was gonna be like an entire month” says X user, @emmarobcerts. They weren't the only critic, with many people having opinions on the trip, calling it "waste of space", “tone deaf” and a "gluttonous" display of wealth, according to Entertainment Weekly, and many with environmental concerns about unnecessary space travel. People on apps like X also poked fun at the dramatics of the situation, Katy describing the experience as a "super connection to life" and Gayle King getting to her knees and kissing the ground after only 11 minutes in space

Following the backlash, Katy responded, saying she regrets the trip and saying she felt “battered and bruised,” and claiming critics made her a “human piñata.” But the critiques, while intense, highlight a valid concern; the seemingly glaring display of wealth in a time of economic instability overshadows the intended feminist ideas of the flight, because sending celebrities to space does not make a difference to the world or say much at all. We could be putting money like that into real issues - space exploration can be used to learn more about how to protect our dying planet in times like these.