Lily Allen has joined the debate around the all-female Blue Origin 10-minute space flight, calling the voyage “out of touch” and questioning its necessity.
The Blue Origin space flight launched on Monday April 14, about 120 miles southeast of El Paso. The flight lasted 10 minutes and 21 seconds, going as far as the Kármán line, the internationally recognised boundary of space.
The flight carried a crew of six women including musician Katy Perry, philanthropist Lauren Sánchez, broadcast journalist Gayle King, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics research scientist Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn.
It was the first all-female space team in 60 years, hoping to encourage an interest in science for young women around the world – while also promoting Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space technology company, who plan to commercialize space travel for the rich.
Since its launch, the flight has sparked debate, with detractors questioning what exactly was to gain from the voyage.
Lily Allen let listeners hear her opinion during her ‘Miss Me?’ podcast with co-host Miquita Oliver.
In a video clip of the podcast, Lily says: “I just think it’s so out of touch we’re on the brink of a recession, people are really struggling to make ends meet, it just seems like things are hard at the moment.”
Miquita responds, saying that it’s “Not really the most appropriate time to send Katy Perry into space?”
Lily agreed, saying: “For absolutely no reason! It’s like we send people to space to discover things, for scientific reasons.”
Miquita then claims it was bad timing, as Lily questions the intention behind the all-female flight, saying: “And the fact that they’ve made it like some sort of feminist thing!”
Other celebrities have voiced their disapproval of the space flight. Emily Ratajkowski called out the mission in a Tik Tok video, calling it “end time s**t” and “beyond parody”.
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She spoke out against the motive for the mission and the company behind it: “That you care about Mother Earth and it’s about Mother Earth, and you’re going up in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that’s single-handedly destroying the planet?”
British TV personality Vicky Pattinson also expressed her frustration on social media, claiming that “This isn’t feminism”
“They want to distract you with this so you don’t focus on the fact that slowly, almost imperceptibly, women’s rights are being taken away.
“I don’t think we need to see a bunch of uber rich women fired into space in a schlong shaped space ship for 5 minutes… we need equal pay, access to reproductive healthcare, the right to vote, to feel safe, autonomy over our own bodies, the right to safe, accessible abortion.”
While there has been a sharp backlash to the voyage, its crew members stand proud behind their Blue Origin flight. In a conference following the ship’s landing, Gayle King said: “I feel that anybody that’s criticizing doesn’t really understand what is happening here. I’ve heard it, we’ve all heard it.”
“I hope that they will do a deep dive into what this represents. We can all speak to the response we’re getting from young women, young girls about what this represents,” she continued. “This is really a lot of work, what went into getting us up and getting us down.”
Lauren Sanchez also said “I get really fired up a little bit on this. I would love to have them come to Blue Origin and see the thousands of employees that don’t just work here but they put their heart and soul into this vehicle. Rocket scientists, engineers, all kinds of people, they love their work, and they love the mission and it’s a big deal for them.”
However, the Daily Mail have reported from insider knowledge that Katy Perry regrets “making a public spectacle” out of her space flight, adding that she “never expected this backlash” and is “disheartened” by the “uncalled for and upsetting” reaction.
The latest episode of Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver’s ‘Miss Me?’ podcast can be found on BBC Sounds, here.
