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Blue Origin’s NS-31 mission was a real, successful spaceflight—but it was also a highly staged commercial spectacle. That tension explains why a historic all-female flight became a target of criticism.
Blue Origin’s NS-31 mission was a real, successful spaceflight—but it was also a highly staged commercial spectacle. That tension explains the backlash better than any single accusation.
On April 14, 2025, six women flew aboard Blue Origin’s autonomous New Shepard vehicle for roughly 11 minutes, crossed the conventionally defined 100-kilometer Kármán line and returned safely. The flight was suborbital, not orbital, and its human purpose was primarily a short commercial space-tourism experience rather than a conventional scientific expedition. It nevertheless carried NASA-supported technology and plant-biology payloads.
Critics objected to the way the flight was marketed as a feminist and inspirational milestone while being closely associated with billionaire Jeff Bezos, celebrity culture, luxury consumption and uncertain environmental and social benefits. Some criticism was sexist and abusive. Other criticism raised legitimate questions about wealth, purpose, terminology and whether a few minutes of weightlessness should be presented as progress for women in science and engineering.
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What happened on Blue Origin’s NS-31 flight?
NS-31 was Blue Origin’s 31st New Shepard mission and its 11th human flight. It launched from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas on April 14, 2025. The reusable rocket and capsule operated autonomously: the passengers did not pilot the vehicle.
New Shepard carries its capsule above the atmosphere on a short ballistic arc. The capsule then separates, gives passengers several minutes of weightlessness and returns under parachutes, while the booster lands vertically for potential reuse. The entire experience lasts about 11 minutes. Blue Origin describes New Shepard as a suborbital vehicle designed to take people and research above the Kármán line, commonly defined as 100 kilometers, or about 62 miles, above Earth’s surface. Blue Origin’s New Shepard overview describes the vehicle and its flight profile.
That distinction matters. NS-31 reached space under the conventional 100-kilometer definition, but it did not enter orbit, visit the International Space Station or travel to the Moon. “Suborbital spaceflight,” “space trip” and “flight to the edge of space” are accurate. “Orbital mission” is not.
The capsule landed safely after the flight. Blue Origin’s official NS-31 mission page records the mission and crew.
Who was aboard?
The six-person group combined science, aviation, journalism, entertainment and film:
| Passenger | Background |
|---|---|
| Aisha Bowe | Former NASA rocket scientist, entrepreneur and STEM advocate. |
| Amanda Nguyễn | Bioastronautics researcher and civil-rights activist. |
| Gayle King | Journalist and co-host of CBS Mornings. |
| Katy Perry | Singer and performer. |
| Kerianne Flynn | Film producer. |
| Lauren Sánchez | Journalist, pilot, philanthropist and organizer of the mission; she was engaged to Bezos at the time. |
Blue Origin announced the crew in its NS-31 mission release. Their backgrounds were not interchangeable: Bowe and Nguyễn had direct science-related credentials, Sánchez had aviation experience, and King, Perry and Flynn were primarily known for journalism, performance and film production.
Was it really the first all-female spaceflight?
Only with careful wording.
NS-31 was the first human spaceflight since 1963 in which no men were aboard. That makes it historically notable. But it was not the first woman in space, and it did not erase the achievement of Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, who became the first woman in space on the solo Vostok 6 mission in 1963. The Congressional Research Service uses the more precise comparison.
The strongest description is: NS-31 was the first all-female commercial human-spaceflight crew since Tereshkova’s solo 1963 flight, and the first spaceflight since then with no men aboard.
It was also not the first major all-female achievement in spaceflight. NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch completed the first all-female spacewalk in 2019, an operation involving complex station maintenance and scientific work. NASA’s history of women on the space station places that milestone in context.
The historical claim was therefore real, but its meaning was open to debate. Critics felt the marketing treated a narrow symbolic distinction as if it were equivalent to a new breakthrough in exploration, access or gender equality.
Why did the mission attract so much attention?
NS-31 was not presented as an ordinary private flight. It was packaged as a major cultural event about women, visibility and the future of space travel.
The all-female crew gave the launch an obvious historical storyline. Perry and King brought enormous entertainment and television audiences. Sánchez’s relationship with Bezos made the owner of Blue Origin personally connected to the mission. Blue Origin and the participants used language about inspiration, empowerment, “taking up space” and encouraging women and girls to pursue STEM careers.
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That combination turned a rocket launch into a branded entertainment event. People were not judging only whether the vehicle worked. They were judging the message: what does it mean when a billionaire-owned company asks the public to see luxury tourism as a feminist milestone?
Why critics called it a publicity stunt
Billionaire privilege and the economics of luxury travel
The most direct criticism was economic. Commentators argued that NS-31 represented wealthy people spending extraordinary resources on a personal experience while many households were struggling with rent, food and basic costs.
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Emily Ratajkowski criticized the flight as a display of oligarchic privilege. Olivia Munn described the mission as “gluttonous” before launch and questioned the priorities behind spending so much on a short trip while people could not afford necessities. The Los Angeles Times summarized several public reactions.
Those objections are fundamentally about opportunity cost and inequality: even if the flight was technically successful, critics questioned whether the resources could have produced greater public value elsewhere.
There is an important factual limit, however. Blue Origin did not disclose the price of the NS-31 seats or identify who paid for each participant. It is not established that the passengers bought their places, that the flight cost a particular amount or that it cost “a billion dollars.” Olivia Wilde’s billion-dollar remark was sarcastic commentary about Bezos’s wealth and the spectacle, not a verified price tag. AP reported the lack of cost disclosure.
The feminist milestone versus the reality of space tourism
The criticism was not necessarily that women should not fly to space. It was that a billionaire-owned tourism company framed a few minutes of weightlessness as a major advance for women in STEM.
NS-31 did not, by itself, create broad access for ordinary women. It did not change the number of women employed in aerospace, reduce the cost of training or education, alter hiring patterns, or establish a new scientific capability. The participants were selected from a high-profile network and included entertainers and media figures, which made the mission look more like an invitation-only cultural production than an open route into space careers.
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The association with Bezos and Sánchez intensified the concern. Even without evidence that Sánchez’s relationship determined her place on the flight, the connection made it harder for audiences to view the mission as independent of billionaire privilege.
Celebrity spectacle and gendered presentation
The use of fashion, beauty and celebrity was a deliberate communications strategy. It made the flight accessible to audiences who might not follow aerospace news and helped Blue Origin connect space travel with popular culture.
For critics, though, the strategy overwhelmed the technical and scientific substance. Perry’s joking phrase about putting “ass in astronaut” reinforced the impression that the event was being sold as entertainment first. Amy Schumer mocked the mission by pretending she had been added at the last minute, while Wilde posted a meme and joked that “a billion dollars bought some good memes.” The Guardian covered the reaction.
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It is important to separate two issues. Criticizing glamour as a marketing choice is legitimate. Attacking the women’s bodies, ages, appearances or relationships is not. The mission can be questioned without repeating misogynistic abuse aimed at its participants.
Was the flight environmentally harmful?
Blue Origin says New Shepard burns liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, producing water vapor at the engine exhaust rather than carbon dioxide. That is a narrower claim than saying the entire activity was pollution-free or climate-neutral. Blue Origin’s vehicle description states the company’s position.
A full environmental assessment would need to consider more than combustion at the moment of launch:
- Fuel production: Hydrogen and oxygen require energy to produce, compress and liquefy. The climate effect depends heavily on how that energy is generated and how the fuels are handled.
- Manufacturing and infrastructure: Building rockets, capsules, engines, launch facilities and support systems has material and energy costs.
- Training and transport: Passenger travel, logistics and repeated operations add to the mission’s broader footprint.
- Upper-atmosphere effects: Rocket emissions are released in atmospheric regions where water vapor, nitrogen oxides and other compounds may have different effects from equivalent emissions at ground level.
- Behavioral symbolism: Climate-communication research has examined whether conspicuous, unnecessary high-emission behavior by public figures can weaken support for collective sacrifices.
Research on suborbital emissions and rocket exhaust helps explain why “no carbon emissions at the engine” does not settle the environmental question. See the PLOS One study of suborbital emissions and the Earth and Space Science emissions inventory.
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The fairest conclusion is that New Shepard’s propellant gives it a meaningful advantage at the engine-exhaust level, while the full life-cycle and atmospheric consequences remain more complicated. “Hydrogen-powered” is not the same as “environmentally harmless.”
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Did the women conduct any science?
Yes—but saying that NS-31 was a science mission would also be misleading.
NASA-supported JANUS 3.0 flew externally on the New Shepard propulsion module. The payload tested a platform for observations and technology demonstrations in the suborbital environment. NASA lists the project through its Flight Opportunities program.
Aisha Bowe also says she operated two plant-biology payloads involving sweet potato, tomato, chickpea and Arabidopsis seedlings, with NASA-affiliated and academic partners. Her account is available at Bowe’s spaceflight page.
These details disprove the absolute claim that “there was no science.” But they do not transform the flight into a crewed NASA-style research expedition. New Shepard was autonomous, the passengers were not a conventional research crew and the mission’s public identity centered on commercial experience, symbolism and celebrity.
The most accurate summary is: NS-31 carried research and technology payloads, but its primary human purpose was commercial suborbital tourism and an all-female symbolic flight.
Were they astronauts?
In ordinary language, Blue Origin and many media outlets called the six women astronauts. In the FAA’s current regulatory vocabulary, the distinction is more precise.
The FAA separates people directly involved in operating a commercial human-spaceflight mission from passengers carried aboard it. The latter are generally called spaceflight participants. The FAA also recognizes people who reach at least 50 statute miles on an FAA-licensed vehicle, but it no longer functions as an agency that officially assigns everyone an “astronaut” title. Its definitions and recognition framework are explained on the FAA human-spaceflight page and FAA recognition page.
The Congressional Research Service concluded that the NS-31 participants appeared to fit the legal category of spaceflight participants rather than government astronauts or conventional vehicle crew. Read the CRS analysis.
So the cleanest wording is: the six women were commercial spaceflight participants who crossed the relevant recognition threshold and were described by Blue Origin and the media as astronauts.
That is not a way to diminish the experience. It distinguishes a short autonomous commercial flight from the training, operational responsibilities and mission roles associated with government astronaut corps.
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The crew defended the mission mainly through its inspirational value.
Gayle King said critics did not understand what the flight represented and pointed to messages from young women and girls who found the event meaningful. Lauren Sánchez invited skeptics to visit Blue Origin and see the employees working on the program. Perry framed the flight as a moment for commercial space travel, humanity and women more broadly. Their responses emphasized visibility: women occupying a space historically dominated by men and showing that such experiences could eventually become more common.
That argument has genuine force. Representation can matter, particularly in fields where women have been excluded or underrepresented. The first all-female crew since Tereshkova’s flight was a real historical event, and the participants were entitled to celebrate it.
But the responses did not fully answer the central question raised by critics: what measurable benefit did this particular mission create for women beyond visibility and inspiration? Without public commitments tied to education, research access, scholarships, workforce development or broader affordability, the social value remained largely asserted rather than demonstrated.
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The Los Angeles Times’ account of the backlash includes responses from the crew and their critics.
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Was the backlash sexist?
Some of it plainly was. Online reactions included misogynistic jokes and attacks focused on the women’s looks, age, bodies, makeup and personal relationships. Those comments do not become reasonable simply because the mission was highly publicized.
But it would also be too simple to label the entire backlash misogynistic. The same event raised substantive questions about:
- how billionaire wealth is used;
- whether luxury space tourism has enough public value;
- how companies use feminism to market exclusive experiences;
- the environmental trade-offs of repeated launches;
- whether the term “astronaut” accurately describes passengers; and
- whether the mission’s science was central or secondary.
The fact that earlier male celebrity flights also involved tourism does not prove that criticism of NS-31 was sexist. On the other hand, the unusually gendered mockery and the tendency to treat an all-female crew as uniquely frivolous make gender bias a reasonable part of the analysis.
The strongest interpretation is therefore mixed: some criticism targeted women because they were women, while broader criticism targeted the institution, the owner, the business model and the marketing. Those should not be collapsed into one explanation.
What happened to Blue Origin afterward?
NS-31 itself was not an unresolved safety incident. It completed its flight successfully on April 14, 2025.
On January 30, 2026, Blue Origin announced that it would pause New Shepard flights for at least two years while shifting resources toward lunar human-spaceflight systems. The company cited lunar development priorities and said it had a customer backlog. The announcement did not attribute the pause to NS-31’s backlash, weak demand or a safety problem.
That distinction matters because it is tempting to treat the controversy and the later pause as a single story. Public evidence does not establish that connection. Blue Origin’s stated strategy was to prioritize lunar capability. Its January 30, 2026 announcement is the primary source for the decision.
A fair verdict on the controversy
| Question | Best-supported answer |
|---|---|
| Was it a real spaceflight? | Yes. It was a successful suborbital flight that crossed 100 kilometers. |
| Was it orbital? | No. |
| Was it primarily tourism? | Yes. The human mission was short, autonomous and commercially staged. |
| Was there any science? | Yes. NASA-supported technology and plant-related payload work flew on or with the mission. |
| Were the passengers conventional astronauts? | No, under the more specific FAA terminology; they were spaceflight participants, although “astronaut” is commonly used. |
| Was the price publicly known? | No. Blue Origin did not disclose the payment arrangements or a verified total cost. |
| Was the first-all-female claim false? | No, but it requires the qualification that Tereshkova’s 1963 flight was a solo mission. |
| Was the rocket carbon-free? | Its hydrogen-oxygen combustion produces no carbon emissions at the engine exhaust, but that does not establish zero life-cycle or atmospheric impact. |
| Did the backlash prove the mission was harmful? | No. It exposed a legitimacy and messaging problem more clearly than a safety failure. |
| Did the backlash cause the 2026 pause? | No public evidence establishes that. Blue Origin cited lunar priorities. |
NS-31 was neither a fake spaceflight nor an unambiguous feminist breakthrough. It was a technically real, historically qualified and commercially staged suborbital experience. The backlash came from the mismatch between those facts: the mission asked audiences to treat luxury tourism as a landmark in gender progress without clearly showing what lasting public benefit followed.
That is why the controversy endured. The rocket worked. The symbolism was real. The marketing promised more than the mission could clearly prove.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Blue Origin’s all-female flight go into orbit?
No. NS-31 was suborbital: it crossed the 100-kilometer Kármán line but did not enter orbit.
Was NS-31 the first all-female spaceflight?
It was the first spaceflight since Valentina Tereshkova’s solo 1963 mission with no men aboard. It was not the first woman in space.
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Yes. NASA-supported JANUS technology flew on the mission, and Aisha Bowe reported operating plant-biology payloads. However, the human mission was primarily commercial space tourism.
Were the six women legally astronauts?
The FAA’s more specific term is “spaceflight participant” for passengers who do not operate the vehicle. Blue Origin and media organizations commonly used “astronaut.”
Did the backlash cause Blue Origin to stop New Shepard flights?
Blue Origin said it was pausing New Shepard for at least two years to focus resources on lunar human-spaceflight systems. No public evidence shows that the backlash caused the pause.
The Bottom Line
Bottom line: Blue Origin’s NS-31 flight was a genuine, successful suborbital spaceflight with some research aboard. The backlash focused on its billionaire ownership, celebrity framing, environmental uncertainty, contested “astronaut” language and the gap between a brief luxury experience and claims of broad feminist progress—not on a demonstrated safety failure.
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