Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket took off from West Texas on April 14th, 2025, with an all-female crew aboard for an 11-minute suborbital spaceflight as much as it was contentious. Featuring pop artist Katy Perry, “CBS Morning’s” Gayle King, Blue Origin founder’s fiancée Lauren Sanchez, movie producer Kerianne Flynn, scientist Amanda Nguyen, and former NASA engineer Aisha Bowe, the flight represented the first U.S. all-female crew spaceflight. Advertised for over a month as something more than another launch, with promises to bring about gender breakthrough in spaceflight, the flight was marketed by Blue Origin as part of an expanded space-faring world. But in return, all it succeeded in doing was to spark fiery denouncements by celebrities and commentators who saw in it an expensive, performative exercise in privilege at a moment of towering challenges.
As dust clears from New Shepard’s brief flight, the spaceflight mission has fueled more controversy over ethics of space tourism, optics of billionaire enterprise, and actual cost of making symbols. Was Thursday’s flight a watershed moment for women in spaceflight and STEM opportunities, or tone-deaf spectacle calling attention to growing divide between rich few and rest of us? This article delves into controversy, crew response, and larger implications for space travel’s future.
A Historic Mission Comes under Severe Criticism
Blue Origin’s all-female flight was meticulously staged to have the biggest impact. The A-list crew of high-performing professionals was promoted as a symbol of progress in an otherwise male-dominated space. The narrative of the mission leaned hard on empowerment, with Blue Origin touting heavily the diversity and achievements of travelers. But with the brief flight duration of just 11 minutes from launch to landing, combined with an all-celebrity crew with an unspecified price tag, its true motive has come under question.
Model and writer Emily Ratajkowski was one of the loudest of the mission’s critics. On April 15, in TikTok, she dissected the flight with sarcastic acuteness, likening it to an apocalyptic terrain in “The Hunger Games.” Ratajkowski insisted that the outer progressive facade of the mission is nothing more than a ruse, which berated Bezos, Amazon’s billionaire founder, for putting on an act to send “his fiancée and other celebrity women to space to indulge in space tourism.” Ratajkowski disparaged the flight as an exercise in nothing, asserting that it “optically looks like progress” but does nothing to address systemic issues.
It merely speaks to the reality that we are, in actuality, living in an oligarchy, Ratajkowski said, alluding to how much money is being spent by the flight in contrast to how things are for ordinary people. The majority of the world is worried about how to pay rent or put food in their children’s mouths. To be able to use privilege which you have accrued through exploitative means of the world, of human resources, doing something which is to travel to space for 11 minutes isn’t something to be proud of.
Ratajkowski doubled down in a second video released after landing, referring to the flight as “end times s—” and “beyond parody.” She also took issue with the environmental hypocrisy of the flight in contrast to Blue Origin’s “eco-friendly” marketing with all of the energy used to go so far for such a short flight. “I’m disgusted,” she concluded, summarizing much of her criticism.
Ratajkowski wasn’t alone in condemning the flight. Actress Olivia Wilde of “Don’t Worry Darling” added to the criticism with an since-deleted Instagram story, sarcastically commenting that the “billion dollars” spent on the flight “bought some good memes.” Comedian Amy Schumer entered the fray with a satirical video, joking that she’d had to be brought in at the last moment to join the crew and repeating in hollow-sounding tones, “Space. Space. Space. Space.” Even before launch, actress Olivia Munn, appearing on “Today With Jenna and Friends” on April 3, referred to the flight as a “gluttonous” stunt, wondering with prices of necessities rising, what the objective was. “It’s so much money to go to space, and there are a lot of people who can’t even buy eggs,” said Munn.
Blue Origin and The Crew Strike Back
Blue Origin, founded by Bezos in 2000, has maintained secrecy regarding both the cost of the flight and where the money came from, refusing to confirm whether the passengers bought their tickets or whether the flight is subsidized. The secrecy only makes things more speculative and raises more criticism, with those in opposition suggesting that secrecy maintains the performative nature of the venture. Blue Origin’s effect upon the environment is also under criticism, with Blue Origin extolling space travel even as they avoid discussion of their carbon footprint.
Crew members have rallied to defend the significance of the mission. Gayle King, in an interview with People last April 14, said those who doubted “don’t really know what is happening here.” King emphasized the inspirational nature of the flight, noting words from young girls as well as women who looked to see in the all-female crew inspiring symbolism. “This is something bigger,” King said, framing the mission as one that is moving toward greater representation in space travel.
Lauren Sanchez, Bezos’ fiancée since late 2023, replied differently, challenging naysayers to visit Blue Origin’s headquarters and witness employees’ commitment. “Come with me. I’ll show you. I’ll take you around. I’ll educate you in terms of what this is all about, and it’s an eye-opener,” she told People, referencing the “thousands of employees” who have come to work for the New Shepard program. Sanchez’s words suggest that the more visionary goals of the mission—in developing space technology, in inspiring generations to come—stick over criticism.
The rest of the crew, Flynn, Nguyen, and Bowe, have largely stayed out of media focus, although their respective professional credentials as a film producer, scientist, and former-NASA engineer are meant to lend credibility to the endeavor. That they join the crew with such celebrity personnel as those of Perry and King have fueled suspicion that fame rather than merit informed their selection.
The bigger picture: space tourism and inequality Blue Origin all-female flight criticism is reminiscent of growing resentment with billionaires such as Bezos, Musk, and Richard Branson’s private space tourism expansion. The critics view these as more vanity and profit-generating exercises rather than exercises in society’s interest, diverting funds from more critical issues such as poverty, climate, and medicine. Celebrities aboard New Shepard flight and lack of disclosed costs of this endeavor have turned them into lightning rods for such criticisms.
Ratajkowski’s framing of the flight as “greed and exploitation” aligns with other criticism of Bezos & Amazon, who have faced criticism over labor practices, tax avoidance, and ecological impact. Contrast with fleeting space joyride with struggle of ordinary humans—emphasis underlined by mention of egg prices by Munn—has fueled charges of tone-deafness. Ecological impact of flight, not framed in dollar terms by Blue Origin, is also under attack, with record algal blooms & other ecological crises making headlines.
This is not Blue Origin’s initial brush with such controversy. Their suborbital flight in 2021 with “Star Trek” legend William Shatner, also an 11-minute flight, generated similar controversy over space tourism’s merit. Most notably, Blue Origin’s successful January 16, 2025, test flight of their New Glenn rocket to orbit was overshadowed by an aborted attempt early in the month, which brought technical as well as economic questions of private spaceflight to the forefront. Such events have done nothing to stifle criticism of Blue Origin’s priorities or Blue Origin’s role in exacerbating inequity.
A Step Back or A Misstep?
This all-female crew, intended to symbolize advancement, saw women from all areas of professional life inhabit traditionally male space. To their audience, this flight sent a very powerful statement regarding representation, particularly in STEM fields where women are underrepresented. Having Nguyen, who is a scientist, and Bowe, who is also a former NASA engineer, demonstrate how women are capable of taking over space flight. King’s statements regarding inspiring young girls add to this story where flight’s symbolism is able to have lasting impact.
To others, however, optics are inextricable from context. Such public figures as Sanchez and Perry being brought in to staff this flight, and such brevity, such cost, are enough to have many view the entire experience as publicity stunt, not achievement. That question of whether passengers are paying millions to be aboard or are sponsored by Bezos just fuels suspicion. Ratajkowski’s declaration that the flight is an “oligarchy” will resonate with those who view private space tourism as something for rich people, unconnected from everyday experience for most.
Its timing, just two months before Bezos’s wedding to Sanchez in Venice, Italy, also raised eyebrows. Others have gone so far as to speculate that the flight was even a personal vanity flight by Bezos to enhance his personal publicity ahead of his union with Sanchez. Blue Origin’s huge publicity surrounding the flight, which depended much more on celebrity publicity than upon any science mission, only supports such an assumption.
The Future of Private Space Exploration
With Blue Origin developing plans for future flights, controversy over private space travel’s purpose is not soon to subside. The company itself does not have ambitions limited to suborbital tourism, with reusable rockets and moon landing vehicles in development. Recent achievements, such as with the New Glenn orbit launch, indicate increasing activity in space. The furor over that all-female flight, though, serves to bring attention to struggles in balancing innovation with social responsibility.
For private space flight’s enthusiasts, Blue Origin’s style of flight is one way of making space open to everybody, which will yield breakthroughs in science and commercial ventures. To others, the benefit of space travel is hypothetical, but its detriment in terms of money and even carbon footprints is factual. The argument will shape how Blue Origin’s competitors will be perceived as well as by society in the coming years.
Conclusion
A Split Legacy Blue Origin’s all-female flight would have been a triumphant moment, an homage to women breaking through ceilings in space. It ended up being more indicative of a divide between those who view it as an achievement and those who view it as frivolity. For every young girl reading about Gayle King’s coverage with inspiration, there is also a critic in Emily Ratajkowski complaining about this mission being taken off the list of things to worry about on earth. For every Blue Origin worker heralded by Lauren Sanchez, there is also an inquiry from Olivia Munn as to where those dollars are spent. While the world grapples with economic inequality, ecological calamity, and social unrest, such initiatives by billionaires such as Blue Origin will continue to face growing criticism. Even as Blue Origin’s New Shepard flight breached space’s frontier in just 11 minutes, all its fallout lies in perilous privilege, progress, and space travel’s trajectory. Blue Origin’s initiative will be revolutionary breakthrough or fleeting spectacle by how much Blue Origin, and society in general, reacts to obstacles in the days to follow.
