Blue Origin, the rocket tourism company that Jeff Bezos started in 2000, made waves last week with its first all-female flight. This pioneering mission has ignited vigorous debate around feminism and the moral complexities of commercial space travel. To make matters worse, the original flight was on a Monday. It included high-profile supporters like pop-star-turned-education-reformer Katy Perry and Lauren Sánchez, who is Bezos’s partner. Many heralded this occasion as a huge milestone for women. Some criticized it as an empty circus that inspired little else.
In Blue Origin’s case, the company was founded to fill the void left by the federal government’s efforts to conveniently privatize space exploration. Its vision couldn’t be simpler – to make space accessible for everybody. In its formative years, Bezos was the company’s sole source of capital. He parlayed tremendous wealth accrued at Amazon to progressives’ most audacious dreams for the Democrats. These days, Blue Origin is tightening its sights on tourism. The new business of the company, as Branson addresses, is giving adventure-seekers private citizens fun experiences that want to pay for a trip to the edge of space.
Beyond its commercial aspirations, Blue Origin has benefited heavily from government contracts. Under the Trump administration, the company was awarded a contract of more than $2 billion. This landmark agreement set in stone its emerging position within the booming private and commercial space sector. This marriage of industry and government begs the question, what’s the real intention behind these partnerships? Others are particularly worried considering Bezos’s extensive financial connections to local politicians. One recent example includes the fact that Amazon donated $1 million to Trump’s latest inauguration, pointing out just how intertwined corporate interests and politics really are.
Blue Origin has gotten lots of financial support and celebrity cheerleading. Yet it continues to come under fire for the pace of technological advancement or lack thereof against its prime competitor, SpaceX. The latter has accomplished remarkable things within the industry, particularly in moving the needle on day-to-day space technology development at breakneck speed. Critics claim that Blue Origin spends too much energy on celebrity-studded PR flights. They feel this focus distracts from more significant progress towards lunar exploration.
The aesthetics of Blue Origin’s rockets have captured imaginations. Frequently referred to as “phallically shaped,” these ships have come to represent the company’s mission—more show than go. Turning the plane into a flying classroom The recent all-female flight featured accomplished women as role models, including aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe and civil rights entrepreneur Amanda Nguyen. Most feel that the event put marketing and optics before any real benefit to women in aerospace.
Katy Perry just could hardly contain herself on that inaugural flight. She vowed, “Space is going to be the new glam,” promising to transform the notion of space travel for all. Meanwhile, Lauren Sánchez added a humorous note about the potential for luxury in space travel: “We’re going to have lash extensions flying in the capsule.” These comments highlight a concerning theme emerging in the current commercial space travel boom—the intersection of luxury and celebrity culture.
Not everyone shares this optimistic view. If that’s all true, then critics are right to call the all-female flight an indulgent, morally vacuous spectacle. They conclude that it is deeply problematic despite its appearances of celebrating women’s accomplishments. The bill misses the larger point about the commercial space travel and the ethical implications of privatizing space exploration. The event has been characterized as a testament to the corruption and circumscribed possibilities that can arise when profit motives dominate.