That Blue Origin flight was a success but isn’t landing well among some stars: ‘Disgusted’
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Earth to Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin: This week’s fleeting space launch featuring an all-female crew was a wasteful, performative and tone-deaf endeavor reminiscent of the “Hunger Games” dystopia — according to author, model and actor Emily Ratajkowski.
The outspoken “My Body” writer did not mince words Tuesday as she continued to criticize Monday’s Blue Origin flight that launched six women including Katy Perry, Gayle King and Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sanchez into space. The endeavor, which had been heavily hyped and promoted for more than a month, lasted only 11 minutes from takeoff to landing. (Previous Blue Origin flights, including the 2021 launch with “Star Trek” icon William Shatner, were equally as brief.)
Blue Origin launched Jeff Bezos’ fiancee, Lauren Sanchez, to space as part of an all-female celebrity crew that included singer Katy Perry and journalist Gayle King.
Ratajkowski dissected the New Shepard rocket mission in a TikTok video posted Tuesday morning, claiming that the women-led initiative was not as progressive as it seemed. While Monday’s celebrity launch was the nation’s first spaceflight where women filled each seat and “optically looks like progress,” Ratajkowski alleged, the “truth” was that Amazon executive Bezos just wanted to “take his fiancée and a few other famous women to space for space tourism.”
“It just speaks to the fact that we are absolutely living in an oligarchy where there is a small group of people who are interested in going to space for the sake of getting a new lease on life while the rest of the population, most people on planet Earth, are worried about paying rent or having dinner for their kids,” she said.
She added elsewhere in her video: “Being able to take the privilege that you have gained from exploitation and greed of the planet, of resources of human beings, and doing something like going to space for 11 minutes is not an accomplishment.”
Tuesday’s video was the second Ratajkowski shared reacting to Monday’s launch. In a clip posted shortly after the Blue Origin crew returned to Earth, Ratajkowski said the space trip resembled “end times s—” and was “beyond parody.” She also called out the discrepancies between the environmental messaging surrounding the flight and the resources expended to send the women to space.
“I’m disgusted,” she said.
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Blue Origin, founded in 2000 by Bezos, declined Monday to say how much the flight, a quick up-and-down trip from west Texas, cost or who paid for what. The launch precedes Sanchez and Bezos’ Venice, Italy, wedding in two months.
Ratajkowski hasn’t been the only star to express disdain for the Blue Origin flight on social media. “Don’t Worry Darling” director-actor Olivia Wilde in a since-expired Instagram story reacted to the flurry of jokes inspired by the launch. “Billion dollars bought some good memes I guess,” she said sarcastically.
Comedian Amy Schumer also poked fun at the flight Monday, joking she was a last-minute addition to the eclectic female crew. “I’m going to space and thank you to everyone who got me here and I’ll see you in space,” she said in an intentionally vapid-sounding voice, repeating the word “space” numerous times.
Even before Blue Origin’s New Shepard lifted off with film producer Kerianne Flynn, scientist Amanda Nguyen, former NASA engineer Aisha Bowe and the others in tow, “Your Friends and Neighbors” star Olivia Munn dubbed the spaceflight a “gluttonous” stunt. During her April 3 guest spot on “Today With Jenna and Friends,” Munn questioned the purpose of the trip amid more pressing societal and political issues.
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launched its massive new rocket on its first test flight Thursday, sending up a prototype satellite to orbit thousands of miles above Earth.
“It’s so much money to go to space and there’s a lot of people who can’t even afford eggs,” she said before further scrutinizing media coverage of the endeavor.
After returning from space, “CBS Mornings” co-host King told People on Monday that critics “don’t really understand what is happening here” and said she and her fellow passengers have heard “from young women, from young girls about what this represents.”
Sanchez took another approach to the criticism, telling the outlet she invites skeptics to “come to Blue Origin and see the thousands of employees” that she said have devoted themselves to the New Shepard and the mission.
The author and journalist, engaged to billionaire Bezos for nearly two years, added: “When we hear comments like that, I just say, ‘Trust me. Come with me. I’ll show you what this is about, and it’s, it’s really eye-opening.’”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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