Topics: Donald Trump, Jeff Bezos, Katy Perry, Space, Twitter, Politics, Conspiracy Theories
After pop star Katy Perry landed back on Earth, there were some naysayers about her out of space mission, but one of those includes a Donald Trump official.
It was on April 14 that the 40-year-old pop star joined Blue Origin's New Shepard's 31st force to space, after launching from Launch Site One in West Texas in the morning.
As part of the first-all women crew to launch into space, since Valentina Tereshkova in 1963, this was a historic moment.
The crew included Perry, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, documentary producer Kerianne Flynn, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyễn, journalist and CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King, and author and journalist Lauren Sánchez, the fiancé of Blue Origin founder and Amazon leader, Jeff Bezos.
Advert
The mission saw the crew up in the suborbital craft, floating in the capsule and even bringing some props to float around them too.
However, there were a lot of theories spun about the journey, with some people believing that they had proof that the whole thing was fake.
On X, people posted images of other capsules that had been to space and the damaged caused by re-entering Earth’s atmosphere compared to Perry’s pristine capsule.
Then, a moment caught on film showed a person opening the hatch of the door from the inside after it landed, before closing it and Bezos then used a bar to open it from the outside.
This led to many people calling the whole thing a sham.
But there was also an issue with people calling Perry an ‘astronaut’ due to her lack of training.
One of the people who believe she should not use the term is the Secretary of the US Department of Transportation, Sean Duffy.
He shared some thoughts on X, mentioning that the crew are not experienced enough to be able to fly into space.
He wrote: "The last FAA guidelines under the Commercial Space Astronaut Wings Program were clear: Crewmembers who travel into space must have 'demonstrated activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety'.
"The crew who flew to space this week on an automated flight by Blue Origin were brave and glam, but you cannot identify as an astronaut. They do not meet the FAA astronaut criteria."
The Federal Aviation Administration, which is an agency in the US Department of Transportation Duffy shared that it does not designate people to be an ‘astronaut’, stating: "The FAA no longer designates anyone as an ‘astronaut.’ In addition, the FAA does not define where space begins."
The whole issue seems to stem from the fact that suborbital flights are not technically space flights.
This is because they do not travel at the height or speed required to break back through to Earth rapidly, like you’d see on a NASA or SpaceX mission.
However, as Duffy’s agency claims not to be able to delegate who is an astronaut and who is not, it’s a hard battle to fight.
All in all, we know that Perry travelled on a suborbital flight with a team of ladies, and she looked like she was having fun up there.
