One was a “civil rights activist” selling their name to Bezos too. So disappointing to hear.
Amanda Nguyen’s story is so sad too. The way the Blue Origin PR piece tries to spin it just makes it worse, IMO.
She always wanted to be an astronaut. While she was at Harvard she interned at NASA. The way the Blue Origin PR movie tells her story, her dreams of being an astronaut were interrupted when she was raped at Harvard in 2013. She then spent time fighting for the rights of rape survivors and never became an astronaut. But, in the Blue Origin PR piece’s version of events, that’s all fine because now her dream of being an “astronaut” is finally coming true, because she was launched into the upper atmosphere in a penis rocket and spent a few minutes in space.
Being stripped away by the guy who owns the rocket.
Oh god, that’s just, so incredibly gross. They put them in suits like they’re Deanna Troi in the first few seasons of Star Trek: TNG, it’s all just so tokenistic. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/apr/14/blue-origin-rocket-launch
Before liftoff, [Gayle] King – who co-hosts CBS Mornings – said she was approaching the rocket trip with trepidation. “I still get very uncomfortable when people say ‘astronaut’,” she said. “I in no means feel like an astronaut. They said: ‘But, Gayle, if you go to space, you’re an astronaut.”
Stepping on a boat doesn’t make you a sailor.
This wasn’t an “all-female mission”, but the equivalent of the women-only carriage on a metro. Or more like a limo, actually, because you don’t need a billionaire’s personal invitation to ride the metro.
Astronaut is a job, and it’s one of the jobs that’s the most difficult to do, and has the lowest acceptance rate in the world. People who are actual astronauts dedicate a career to it. The pay they receive is relatively low for their talent. And, they typically have to do a lot of PR events. It’s a grind, but it’s rewarding to have one of the most unique jobs in the world.
Putting on a bandage doesn’t make you a doctor. Unclogging a toilet doesn’t make you a plumber. And going into space, even into orbit, doesn’t make you an astronaut. If you actually get to orbit, I’ll give you “space tourist”. But, if you’re just barely getting above 100 km, you’re a “high altitude tourist”, nothing more.
And, as for “mission”, a mission has a purpose, and just having fun for a few minutes while you’re in the upper atmosphere isn’t an actual mission.
judging women’s rights by the best experience possible and not the average experience
That’s how men are measured, so equality I guess? Seriously though, note how much talk about men as a class is specifically about CEOs, Senators and the like who are far, far away from the average experience.
this is exactly why people don’t fucking get why we need men’s day. It’s november 19th, no one fucking remembers or gives a shit.
It’s november 19th
…which is also World Toilet Day, which typically gets more attention. Note that it was International Men’s Day first, so someone decided they needed a Toilet Day and decided it should be on the same day.
…made the trip to the Kármán line – the internationally recognized boundary of space – to float about, weightlessly, in the rocket’s capsule for three minutes
So they literally flew to the very edge of what’s technically space, stayed there three minutes, then left. It’s like a US citizen driving to the border with Canada, stepping over, waiting three minutes, and declaring yourself a worldly traveler. As performative as it gets.
