Katy Perry, Gayle King visit space on Bezos rocket
Six well-known women went into lower orbit for 11 minutes


What happened
Blue Origin, the spaceflight company founded by Amazon's Jeff Bezos, sent six well-known women into lower orbit Monday, billing the 11-minute journey as the "first all-woman spaceflight" since Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova's 1963 three-day solo mission in space. The six passengers included pop star Katy Perry, journalist Gayle King and Bezos' fiancée, Lauren Sanchez, who handpicked the roster.
Who said what
On NBC's "Today With Jenna and Friends," actress Olivia Munn called the fully automated celebrity space tourism flight "gluttonous" and extravagant, especially when a lot of people "can't even afford eggs." Blue Origin "declined to say how much the flight cost or who paid what," The Associated Press said.
"The cynical part of me wants to call it a marketing stunt," Dr. Tanya Harrison of the Outer Space Institute told the BBC. But a high-profile all-women team might "change the demographics a little bit of who might want to do something like this." Taking female celebrities and activists to space "applied a feminist sheen" on the endeavor, Amanda Hess said at The New York Times, but "if the flight proves anything, it is that women are now free to enjoy capitalism's most decadent spoils alongside the world's wealthiest men."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
What next?
"In this exciting new era of commercial spaceflight, the dream of becoming an astronaut is no longer limited to a select few," bitcoin investor Chun Wang, who bankrolled an entire SpaceX flight over the north and south poles, said on X last week. Bezos and Sanchez are scheduled to get married in Venice in two months.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
June 15 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday's political cartoons include FEMA folding, a Father's Day card for Elon Musk, and new lyrics to the "Marines' Hymn"
-
5 worm-ridden cartoons about RFK. Jr and the CDC
Cartoons Artists take on vaccine advisers, medical quackery, and more
-
Will 2027 be the year of the AI apocalypse?
A 'scary and vivid' new forecast predicts that artificial superintelligence is on the horizon A 'scary and vivid' new forecast predicts that artificial superintelligence is on the horizon
-
Why Elon Musk's satellites are 'dropping like flies'
Under The Radar Fierce solar activity destroying Starlink satellites
-
Dehorning rhinos sharply cuts poaching, study finds
Speed Read The painless procedure may be an effective way to reduce the widespread poaching of rhinoceroses
-
Why is Nasa facing a crisis?
Today's Big Question Trump administration proposes 25% cut to national space agency's budget in 'extinction-level event'
-
Breakthrough gene-editing treatment saves baby
speed read KJ Muldoon was healed from a rare genetic condition
-
Full moon calendar: dates and times for every full moon this year
In depth When to see the lunar phenomenon every month
-
Sea lion proves animals can keep a beat
speed read A sea lion named Ronan beat a group of college students in a rhythmic dance-off, says new study
-
Humans heal much slower than other mammals
Speed Read Slower healing may have been an evolutionary trade-off when we shed fur for sweat glands
-
Novel 'bone collector' caterpillar wears its prey
Speed Read Hawaiian scientists discover a carnivorous caterpillar that decorates its shell with the body parts of dead insects