Is Jeff Bezos’s All-Women Space Flight Really a Big Deal? Here’s Why People Are Not Impressed

Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin captured the headlines with its inaugural all-female spaceflight, propelling six A-list women, including Katy Perry, Gayle King, and Lauren Sánchez, on an 11-minute suborbital flight. Touted as a milestone of history and a tribute to women's empowerment, the mission was presented as a celebration of women's accomplishments and an inspiration for generations to come. But the truth behind the show has raised widespread doubts and criticism.

 

Key Points

 

The flight, though historic in having a crew of all women, was more of a luxury space tourism venture than a science or technical feat. The New Shepard rocket is autonomous, and the passengers did not have any operational roles to play, so they were more space tourists than astronauts.

 

Criticisms suggest the mission was far more about marketing and celebrity spectacle than actual forward progress for women in aerospace. The recruitment of high-profile, affluent women-many with minimal or no space science background-has been criticized as performative and not reflective of actual obstacles faced by women in STEM.

 

Public opinion has been overwhelmingly negative, with many questioning the wisdom of spending huge amounts of resources on a short joyride for celebrities, particularly when those funds could be used to solve real problems on Earth. Social media was filled with remarks about the wastefulness and environmental consequences of the flight.

 

Though Blue Origin touts the mission as inspiring young girls, it is viewed by many as an opportunity lost to celebrate the achievements of women scientists and engineers who have actually made significant contributions to space exploration.

 

In short, the significance of the flight is symbolic rather than substantive, questioning what actual milestones for women in space would even be.

 

Source: The New York Times, Hindustan Times, BuzzFeed