So we recently had the successful flight of the Blue Origin mission with an “all female crew” and from what I have seen things have been viewed as… mixed.
For some like Gayle King who was onboard the flight, she viewed it as historic since they were “an all female astronaut crew” but others have been saying that calling them “astronauts” is disingenuous and that this flight amounted to nothing more than a very overblown Uber ride for the hyper wealthy. For context: the “crew” had… 2 people was an actual scientist, the rest were journalists, pop stars, and the wife of Bezos., the mission only lasted 11 minutes, the training for the mission was only 2 days long and mostly consisted of things like how to get into the capsule, and the rocket was self guided so none of them actually controlled anything. This appears to be where the points of contention lie when it comes to calling them astronauts and considering this a “space flight”. And in response to the criticism, Gayle King as been taking to media to say it is was not frivolous and claiming they are not astronauts is just because of sexism.
So what do you guys think? Was this an actually historic event, or was this just rich people just doing rich people things to make themselves seem bigger than they are. Do you feel theyu should be considered astronauts or do you think it was just a glorified carnival ride for the rich?
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So we recently had the successful flight of the Blue Origin mission with an “all female crew” and from what I have seen things have been viewed as… mixed.
For some like Gayle King who was onboard the flight, she viewed it as historic since they were “an all female astronaut crew” but others have been saying that calling them “astronauts” is disingenuous and that this flight amounted to nothing more than a very overblown Uber ride for the hyper wealthy. For context: the “crew” had… 2 people was an actual scientist, the rest were journalists, pop stars, and the wife of Bezos., the mission only lasted 11 minutes, the training for the mission was only 2 days long and mostly consisted of things like how to get into the capsule, and the rocket was self guided so none of them actually controlled anything. This appears to be where the points of contention lie when it comes to calling them astronauts and considering this a “space flight”. And in response to the criticism, Gayle King as been taking to media to say it is was not frivolous and claiming they are not astronauts is just because of sexism.
So what do you guys think? Was this an actually historic event, or was this just rich people just doing rich people things to make themselves seem bigger than they are. Do you feel theyu should be considered astronauts or do you think it was just a glorified carnival ride for the rich?
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Rich people did A Thing instead of helping poor people.
Being an astronaut is a LOT more than technically hitting space for a few moments. That was a glorified carnival ride for the rich.
I don’t consider any of this blue origin expeditions into “space“ meaningful at all.
I could not conceivably care less about it being an all women crew. Especially when it’s a forced PR stunt.
I would say that all of Blue Origin is overblown, regardless of which wealthy and/or famous people were on board. This was not a historic event and no space tourists count as astronauts as far as I’m concerned, and more than cruise passengers count as sailors.
It’s a bit of both, actually. They are definitely space tourists, but if we consider William Shatner to be an astronaut then we should extend them the same courtesy.
Overblown, they were passengers on the most expensive tourism trip. I have no problem if they want to spend the money on it and take selfies in space, no issue at all. However, let’s not make this another “fake” accomplishment, it’s just demeaning to actual female astronauts and their accomplishments.
I would give them the same “points” I would give Shatner for his flight – effectively none. Yes, it’s a high risk thrill ride. Congratulations.
It’s not sexism because I’d literally say the same thing about Shatner’s flight.
No thoughts really.
The blue origin’s flight went 62 miles in the air, the first manned space mission went 202 miles up, roughly 64 years ago.
meh.
Jeff Bezos is an oligarch and everybody onboard the flight should be paying more taxes.
Why are they calling this a “mission”? It’s a glorified amusement park ride. If the focus is to profile women in the industry, there are plenty of scientists and engineers that should be profiled over a few people that bought enough tickets to hop on the ride.
And it’s only a matter of when, not if, one of these Blue Origin rides ends in complete disaster.
Overblown, this was a publicity stunt using rich celebrities. Also while many may not consider a solo flight a crew, Valentina Tereshcova of the Soviet Union did the first female solo space flight in 1963, I’d say a crew of 1 is still a crew and what she did was far more impressive.
Ridiculous.
Overblown.
Rich people going to space for fun is farcical.
Neither. It’s women doing the exact same thing men have been doing for ages.
Except when men did it we called them “geniuses” and “innovators” and for some reason when women do it everybody’s mad.
They are not astronauts but it was a historic “space tourism event,” which is completely meaningless for non-celeb normies or extreme “travel” hobbyists.
I’ll always applaud the growing amount of private companies exploring space travel and services outside the planet. Think it fosters an ecosystem I’d like to see grow.
In that sense I see the value of Blue Origin. I think it’s neat that they made an amusement ride. Like a little space roller coaster. It’s cute.
If they think it’s historic, then great for them. That’s what they paid for: to feel important and to have fun. Personally, the race or gender of the rich people deosn’t really matter to me. It’s like saying “this HISTORIC flight of all staten-island astronauts”.
Congrats ladies, you fell into the marketing hype.
I really don’t even want to think about it it’s noise.
Rich women buying their way into space is not historical. Women have been to space before on actual missions. That’s what’s historical.
All female tour group?
They have to call them crew/scientist . Just like the OceanGate Titan submersible called them scientists, so they could avoid the lawsuits if something goes wrong.
publicity stunt, do not care, nobody I know cares, only reason ive heard about it is because of people on both sides of the aisle of all genders mocking that people are making a big deal of it
Hot chicks in tight spacesuits seemed to be the main theme.
Disrespectful girlboss pull the ladder up feminism bullshit. Rich folks blasting into space for fun in the rocket of a billionaire known for human rights abuses ain’t it. Whatever that mission cost should be matched and donated by the celebrities who went.
I don’t give a shit about it. It’s meaningless.
Its Girlboss feminism and its pointless
Same as when men take space tourism flights – it’s great for them that they have the money to go look at space for a few minutes, but there’s nothing groundbreaking about it.
I don’t consider them “crew” any more than I’m “crew” when I visit Taco Bell – I didn’t do anything besides pay money to receive a service.
I wouldn’t say it was overblown, just because I didn’t really see it get much attention. It was a small news story that’s gotten way more attention from haters than from anyone else, but that might just be my media bubble.
I think it’s entirely legitimate to make a distinction between crew and passengers.
They are astronauts in the same way rich people on safari are hunters. Not impressed at all.
Overblown, mainly because of sexual assaulter Katy Perry that undermined the whole thing
Crew? Did they pilot the ship? What was the “mission”? Seemed like a breathtakingly self indulgent amusment park ride
I’m actually fucking pissed about it. Americans are suffering. Get your heads out of your asses.
Bezos and the tech bros saw the Republican polls and figured a little DEI might actually be a good thing!
As an aside, its going to be funny to see them try and get back on the Lefts graces after Trump
Rich ppl idpol is cringe.
It’s not historic by any stretch and I can’t say if it’s overblown or not because I haven’t read about it other than it happened. They were just rich people along for a rollercoaster ride, nothing more (well there is more that this is further development of a privatized space industry which is a great thing, but it’s nothing any of the passengers did)
It would have been a much more meaningful and fun event if they hadn’t tried to make like it was a historical thing. And calling them astronauts is absolutely ridiculous and disrespectful. I think it was pretty cool (rich people blowing money whatever) but they lost me when everyone acts like they shook hands with God or something up there.
No. It was a stunt. Media folk are acting like this was the first time a woman has been to space but all I see are a bunch of pathetic rich assholes trying to buy glory. Do they wanna do the work to be a real astronaut? No, they just want a selfie.
If that were a crew of real astronauts, I would have been stoked.
The Real Housewives of Blue Origin, now on Bravo.
Overblown; it’s literally a passenger ride. All of the Blue Origin flights have been.
Sure, it’s “cool” that people get to go into space for a few minutes, and it’s “cool” that this crew was all-women, but it’s not like it was any real effort on the part of most of the spaceflight participants, either here, or in any of the launches.
It’s the LCC crews and engineers and technicians that made the spacecraft go up. All Bezos provided was funding and ideas, and everyone else, men and women, it’s mostly publicity. None of them have any actual role to do.
They’re not trained astronauts, or even trained aircrew (pilots, navigators, flight engineers, etc.) in any sense that’s meaningful for the launch.
I resent the idea that they are called “astronauts” performing “missions”.
Real astronauts train for years and are some of the top SME’s in their fields or world-class aviators that often have decades of experience in the military. The literal best of the best, be they military pilots, navigators, engineers, scientists, or physicians.
Christa McAuliffe was much more of an astronaut than the crews here were; she went through actual astronaut training (even if it was abridged). Barbara Morgan, her back-up, actually became a full-on professional astronaut and flew on the Space Shuttle.
As a military aviator myself, I get kind of… protective when people are like “they’re astronauts!” Sorta like flight attendants on commercial flights.
They have some special training relative to a normal passenger. But they’ve never been to flight training. They haven’t earned wings. They don’t know the first thing (from their work at least) about how to actual fly or operate the aircraft in any meaningful capacity, or even do any specific aviation work as non-operational mission aircrew do (shoutout to my ABM and ISR crews actually doing shit on the aircraft… and even the military flight attendants, who at the very at least have to go through the same SERE as everyone else.)
I’ll have a #2 with a Gonzo-sized sweet tea and extra fries.
They went on the world’s most expensive roller coaster ride. I’d much rather hear about Sunita Williams than Katy Perry
To think anyone would consider themselves an astronaut for buying a trip to space is funny. That’s all I have and I don’t care what gender they are.
Is just an all women 3 hour tour right? Was there not an all female shuttle crew?
I think it’s cool. A very special experience they got to share.
Overblown in the extreme. They were all just tourists.
Now, the start of a space tourism industry is historically significant, but these people weren’t even the first to do that. Bezos and Shatner were, IIRC (I’d double check that though, my memory is meh)
They sent the world’s most expensive Limo to space for 11 minutes with Katy Perry inside
When I was a kid, this kind of stuff still felt inspiring and meaningful – like we were doing things as a species.
Now? I don’t fucking care about Blue Organ.
It’s space tourism. How could it possibly have any meaning? We have wasted enough time talking about this already. Next!
The all female part is irrelevant, the rich people did a thing part… I don’t care. They don’t care about the little guy, I have zero positive words for them and prefer to never hear about them.
It was their money; they can spend it as they wish.
Going to space is amazing.
They were tourists, not crew. All-female tourist groups are not that rare. This one was in space, which is kind of cool, but hardly some great leap for womankind.
They weren’t a crew. They were passengers. I don’t call myself a pilot when I take a flight on an airline.