World travel is so passé – at least for the rich and famous. The new A-list status signifier is a trip to outer space, which is exactly where Katy Perry, Gayle King, Lauren Sanchez, Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen and Kerianne Flynn went on 14 April. The all-female Blue Origin flight was the first of its kind since the Russian astronaut Valentina Tereshkova made a solo trip to space in 1963, but it was not quite the #girlboss moment Jeff Bezos would have us believe.
Tickets for Bezos’ New Shepard spaceflights start at $1.25m (£98k) and have been going for as much as $28m (£21.9m) at auction. The journey lasts a total of 11 minutes from take-off to landing. Yes, 11 minutes. There is little to gain from these endeavours – which produces up to 300 tons of carbon dioxide into the upper atmosphere, where it can remain for years – aside from the flex it offers its celebrity passengers. In fact, the most recent flight was lauded as ‘history-making’ by Katy Perry because it was ‘the first time anyone has journeyed to space in full glam’. Yes, full glam.
Sanchez, who has been engaged to Bezos since 2023, ensured her eyelash extensions were glued on so they could withstand the lack of gravity. Former NASA scientist Aisha Bowe revealed she had been skydiving in Dubai ‘with similar hair to make sure I would be good’. In an interview before the flight Perry admitted, ‘If I could take glam up with me, I would do that’ and said the six women were going to ‘put the “ass” in astronaut’.
During the trip on the fully autonomous rocket, the stars – no pun intended – experienced several minutes of weightlessness as they passed the Karman line, which is internationally recognised as the edge of space, as well as ‘life-changing views’ of Earth.
The mission marked the New Shepard’s 11th human flight, and the 31st in its history, with Rihanna, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Tom Cruise, Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz and James Corden all lining themselves up to board in future.
It’s certainly a feat of engineering, but while the rest of us mortals battle oppressive living costs and the rolling back of women’s rights in countries around the world, including in the United States under Donald Trump, it’s hard to feel vicariously empowered by the A-list’s boundless freedom. Novelty space travel is very much the elites' game, at least for now, and fake lashes in space doesn’t feel much like a step forward. Somewhat ironically, after safely landing back on Earth, Flynn even spoke of the beauty of 'looking down' on everyone and 'knowing everyone I loved was standing down there looking back at me'.
Actress Olivia Munn was one of the first people to call out the faux feminist optics of the Blue Origin mission, saying 'there's a lot of people who can't even afford eggs' during a recent appearance on Today with Jenna & Friends. She called the flight 'a bit gluttonous' and said 'I know this is not the cool thing to say, but there are so many other things that are so important in the world right now'. Her comment makes it all the more ironic that Perry sang 'What A Wonderful World' by Louis Armstrong during the flight.
At the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, astronaut Tim Peake also voiced his disappointment that space exploration was increasingly seen as a pursuit for the wealthy. 'I personally am a fan of using space for science and for the benefit of everybody back on Earth, so in that respect, I feel disappointed that space is being tarred with that brush,' he explained. While podcast host Kate Casey asked, 'If you were to take an historic all-female space flight wouldn't you want to provide that opportunity to women who have worked in aerospace for decades?'.
The futuristic female cohort might have transcended Earth’s orbit but, in many ways, it feels like we’ve travelled back to 2014 when #girlboss feminism taught us individual success within a capitalist system was something all of us should celebrate. Does that land in the same way anymore? Not for most of us. The latest Blue Origin mission feels more like one extortionate step for Hollywood, and one giant leap nowhere for everyone else.
Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, working across pop culture, TV and news. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things TV for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow shows with equal respect).