Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin New Shepard Rocket Launch Met with Deserved Backlash

Monday, April 14, at approximately 9:30 a.m., a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket launched five women into space, including singer-songwriter Katy Perry, journalists Gayle King and Lauren Sanchez, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, film producer Kerianne Flynn, and aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe. The entire trip took only eleven minutes as the rocket reached the edge of the cosmos and returned to Earth.

Gayle King, specifically, became overwhelmed with anxiety and emotion ahead of the Blue Origin travel experience, as did Oprah Winfrey, who accompanied her friend to the launch site alongside Orlando and Daisy Bloom, Katy Perry’s husband and four-year-old daughter, as well as a couple of the Kardashians.

Though she brought 300 bracelets with her to administer to children involved with her Firework Foundation, it is reported that Katy Perry also sang Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” and announced the setlist for her upcoming Lifetimes Tour. Alternatively, in a post uploaded to the Blue Origin Instagram account, it is disclosed that former NASA rocket scientist, Aisha Bowe, used the mission to “conduct three research experiments, including studies on plant biology and human physiology to advance her exploration of space for the benefit of Earth” (Blue Origin), though I imagine that there are limits to those possibilities in such a brief period of time.

Just six years preceding the propel of Amazon, Jeff Bezos founded the private aerospace company, Blue Origin, with a mission to “reduce the cost of space travel and make it more accessible” (Blue Origin). However, despite its cost-efficient plan, one singular seat on the New Shepard spacecraft was auctioned for a steep $28 million in 2021 with a $150,000 deposit. With these requirements, the total cost of the trip is estimated at $140 billion for only about 8 full minutes in space.

Among other things, one trip to space is infamous for the detrimental damage that it can cause to Earth’s environment because of emissions during launch and excessive fuel consumption. The release of pollutants like black carbon into the stratosphere can linger and significantly affect the climate, contributing greatly to ozone depletion.

At this point in our lives, climate change has been majorly neglected and, more recently, treated as a hoax. Moreover, the United States is, at present, on the brink of a recession. These already pressing issues led the costly trip into space this Monday to be met with criticism from both celebrities and the public who were extremely vocal in their condemnation of the event.

In a talk on the Today Show with Jenna & Friends, actress Olivia Munn described the trip as “gluttonous”, explaining that it will not further our knowledge of mankind, and that “it’s a lot of money to go to space and there’s a lot of people who can’t even afford eggs” (Today Show).

Model, actress, and New York Times Best Seller, Emily Ratajkowski, posted a video to her personal TikTok profile in which she states, “That space trip is beyond parody. Saying that you care about Mother Earth and you’re going up in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that is single-handedly destroying the planet... I’m disgusted.”

Following the initial backlash, Gayle King responded to critics saying that she’s already received notes from young women expressing their gratitude for inspiring them with female empowerment. The next morning, Emily Ratajkowski doubled down on her perspective, uploading another video to TikTok where she reflects feelings of the populace.

“[It’s] confusing to people because seeing women and people of color in spaces like science and politics feels and looks like progress. But the truth is that having a man who has gained his power through exploitation and greed deciding to take his fiancée to space for space tourism is not progress. Instead, it speaks to the fact that we are living in an oligarchy while most people are worried about paying rent and having dinner for their kids.”

Expectedly, Blue Origin appears apathetic and unconcerned with the less than likely reaction to the launch of New Shepard, as they are now taking applications for those that want to visit space—with the initial down payment of another $150,000 deposit.