Kat Piantka | Newsroom Manager & Head Editor
April 17, 2025
On Monday, April 14, 2025, Jeff Bezos launched his 11th human flight under the New Shepard Program but with a special twist; for the first time in nearly six decades, an all-female flight crew was on board. The crew included pop star Katy Perry, “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King, journalist Lauren Sánchez, American aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe, American film producer Kerianne Flynn, and civil rights activist and social entrepreneur Amanda Nguyen. The duration of the 62-mile mission to the international boundary of space, the Kármán line, was roughly 10 minutes. All six women on board have publicly raved about the transformative experience, from conquering fears, reaching career milestones, or just witnessing the beauty of outer space. However, the vast majority of the public has different views on these acclaimed astronauts as the mission fails to address the needs of this nation amidst the wreckage of the new administration.
While an all-female crew launching into space is inspiring, it serves as a reminder of the excessiveness of modern society through unnecessary and reckless expulsion of resources for trivial pursuits. A few remarkable women were included in the crew such as Aisha Bowe, who was a former NASA aerospace engineer with a genuine interest and commitment to space exploration and research. But the invite should have never been extended to pop star Katy Perry. Junior Kai Wells believed that the fact that “celebrities were invited was stupid and unnecessary” as it undermined the broader purpose of the mission and made it laughable for the media, surely SNL will satirize the all-female flight.
Blue Origin advertises to fulfill “a future where millions of people will live and work in space with a single-minded purpose: to restore and sustain Earth, our blue origin.” However, Bezos fails to account for the fact that these “joy rides” are killing our environment. If the government is concerned about the future of human civilization, then they should prioritize researching and regulating ways to reduce carbon emissions, practice sustainability, encourage energy conservation, limit deforestation, and lower fossil fuel emissions rather than funding these businessmen’s space activity, which lacks a valid scientific purpose.
Similar to Bezos’s Blue-Origins program which also aims to make space travel more accessible and affordable, Elon Musk’s overarching goal for SpaceX is to create interplanetary travel and to colonize other planets, such as Mars, where self-sustaining societies could be established. These businessmen have poured billions of dollars into space exploration at an extreme level. This federal funding should be used to address global problems like climate change, poverty, homelessness, mental illness, and diseases, and instead support scientific research, not exploitation of resources that are killing our only planet that can support human life. Before these businessmen begin to destroy other planets, they should focus on saving Earth and all who call this planet home.
Before more lives are put at risk in these space missions, we need to remind ourselves of the OceanGate submarine which imploded during an expedition to the Titanic shipwreck. Admission for that excursion was $100,000 to $150,000 per person, just for all five individuals to tragically die because they had an urge to see the ruins of the Titanic in person. Were the Titanic films and documentaries not realistic enough? The money that went towards this incomplete outing could have benefited individuals in desperate need of financial support.
Average human beings do not and should not go to space or the oceanic trenches unless it is for scientific research purposes. If it is just for leisure and thrill, they can splurge on a Disneyland trip, which does not put lives at risk, cost billions of dollars, or release unforeseen amounts of carbon dioxide emissions that destroy Earth’s ozone layer, contributing to global warming.
Junior Mckinely Johnson, similarly found the all-female space mission to be extremely flashy and wasteful as “it was only ten minutes and so much gas and money was wasted.” Not only did this excursion harm the environment but this trip has become glorified by the media. Johnson argued “It was just for show, it is not a national achievement…[and they did not go] for science.”
There are lots of mixed opinions on the all-women Blue Origins mission, some view it as a futuristic feat and others believe it reflects the mere stupidity and selfishness of wealthy individuals as they put their interests above the health of our planet. The only way this journey to outer space could have been justified was if it was for research purposes that could benefit humanity. However, space exploration is no longer an outlandish fantasy of the future, it is here to stay, especially under the current administration. With the help of Jeff Bezos, you too can become an astronaut!
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