Katy Perry’s hit 2010 album “Teenage Dream” may have secretly been teasing that the star had plans to pay for a trip to space 15 years later. From the song “E.T.” which is about a “supernatural, extraterrestrial” lover and the song “Firework” where she sings about shooting across the sky the album is coincidentally filled with innuendos that Perry would in fact go to space on April 14, 2025.
Perry flew to space on the eleventh Blue Origin flight, a Jeff Bezos endorsed company that sells commercial flights to space. The crew of seven launched to space in the New Shepard Rocket up to the Kármán Line, the point considered the boundary of space. Their rocket is named after astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American to go to space. New Shepard’s launch vehicle is reusable, and the spacecraft does not require a pilot to be on board. More information regarding the crew’s trip can be found here.
Blue Origin’s website has the quote: “It’s this generation’s job to build a road to space, so that future generations can unleash their creativity,” from founder Bezos. They list safety as their highest priority and say this about their sustainability: “During flight, the only byproduct of New Shepard’s engine combustion is water vapor with no carbon emissions.” Despite this, there is no completely environmentally friendly way to venture into space. Even water vapor can cause damage to the atmosphere as it emits heat that wasn’t naturally there. Atmospheric scientist Martin Ross is quoted by USA Today saying, “water vapor emissions from individual launches can notably impact the mesosphere and ionosphere.”
In a preflight interview with ELLE, Perry confirmed her lifelong desire to go to space, “ I was like, ‘What am I going to wear?’ But seriously, I have wanted to go to space for almost 20 years.” While the price of Perry’s trip is confidential to those actually reserving a spot to space, the Blue Origin website lists the reservation fee at $150,000. Perry’s trip to space lasted just over 10 minutes. Based on the $150,000 reservation fee alone, that’s $15,000 a minute. Despite Blue Origin’s goal to make space more accessible – that price is far from accessible to most Americans.
Once the crew emerged from their capsule, following their roughly 10-minute flight, they were quickly interviewed for Blue Origin’s YouTube livestream for viewers who were tuned in from around the globe, including me from UNCW’s Cameron Hall. Perry was the last of the crew to be interviewed, and spoke about returning to Earth to her daughter Daisy, “I feel super connected to love. I think this experience has shown me we never know how much love is inside of you.” Immediately after returning to land, Perry held up a daisy flower she had carried to space and kissed the ground, “Daisies are common flowers but they grow through any condition. Flowers are, to me, God’s smile, and also a reminder of our beautiful Earth.”
Before Perry’s interview, her fellow crew mate, King, had shared that Perry sang “What a Wonderful World” once the crew strapped into the seats after experiencing zero gravity. When asked about her song choice, Perry shared why she opted to sing that song instead of one of her own, “My higher self is always singing the song, I had no idea that one day I’d be singing that in space. It’s not about me. It’s not about singing my songs. It’s about a collective energy in there. It’s about us, it’s about making space for future women. Taking up space and belonging. This is all for the benefit of Earth.”
Perry was not the only crew member expressing excitement for all their trip is doing for the Earth. While Sánchez did bring a device to collect information on sights and sounds in space for kids, I fail to see how this trip is life-changing to anyone other than the wealthy women aboard. Another post-interview theme was the women telling everyone that they can get over their fears and do anything. King even mentioned that she had never gotten her ears pierced because she was so afraid, but now that she went to space, she can do anything – even getting an ear piercing. Women lifting up and encouraging other women is always wonderful, however conquering your fears by going to space is not relatable to most people watching.
Multiple social media users expressed confusion about Perry’s trip to space so short. One X user posted “Literally only Katy Perry could make going to space underwhelming.” Others sarcastically commented on Kris Jenner and Khloe Kardashian being interviewed before the flight, posting: “Space experts and experienced astronauts Kris Jenner and Khloe Kardashian speaking at Katy Perry’s rocket launch.” While watching the live stream viewers also saw cameos from Bezos himself, and Oprah. The net worth of everyone there gave the image that this is just a casual Monday morning when you’re rich. Many fans were supportive of Perry’s side quest as no actual harm was done to anyone. Some users even expressed concerns for Perry’s safety as flying to space is not the safest thing someone can spend their morning doing: “Me waiting for Katy Perry to come back from space safely so I can go on with my day.”
Rich people will be rich people. Who’s to say anyone with the means to drop hundreds of thousands on a trip to space wouldn’t take the opportunity. However, to anyone looking to dump money on something, there are many charities that would gladly accept $150,000. This is not to say the women aboard do not donate to charity, but we cannot ignore that the amount of money spent on 11 minutes barely entering space feels extravagant. It is especially extravagant when the women talk about this experience like they’d recommend it to anyone and speak about it like it helped conquer their fears. Perry ended her post flight interview saying, “It’s not just about going to space, it’s the training, it’s the team. I couldn’t recommend this experience any more .” Thanks for the recommendation, Katy, I’ll start saving my $7.25 minimum wage paychecks. For now, the activities of rich people will continue to be a guilty pleasure of mine despite how out of touch this whole viewing experience felt.
Despite confusion about why this trip is being marketed as a confidence booster to women, Perry did confirm that she will be writing a song about this. Maybe that’s the win for mankind here: one small one-minute trip for Perry, one giant new song for mankind. Perry begins her next arena tour, “The Lifetimes Tour” on April 23, 11 days after her space flight. She will be visiting N.C. in Raleigh for any KatyCats who would like to see the new astronaut live. Perry’s trip to space represents mostly harmless rich people behavior at its finest, however that does not mean that the tone-deafness of it all does not represent lack of connection people feel from wealthy celebrities.
