So, Gayle King, Katy Perry and Lauren Sanchez reveled of their almost 11-minute journey aboard one in every of Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin space-tourism rockets Monday morning, and even acquired to expertise some temporary moments of weightlessness throughout what has been been touted as a “historic” flight due to its all-female crew.
“It is the highest high,” Perry proclaimed after their New Shepard capsule landed within the West Texas desert, Bezos face-planted whereas attempting open the hatch, and the pop star dramatically kissed the bottom.
However can she, King and Sanchez, Bezos’s fiancée, now name themselves “astronauts?”
Their followers have hailed them as such, so possibly it relies on whom you ask. However these celebrities undoubtedly don’t meet the factors established by NASA and don’t seem to fulfill all the rules listed beneath the FAA’s “Commercial Space Astronaut Wings Program.”
Earlier than and after Monday’s temporary flight, 65 miles up into the sky and again, many on-line balked at anybody calling Perry, King or Sanchez astronauts. “They’re not astronauts,” one particular person wrote on X. “I think real astronauts would be offended at that. They’re celebrities (who) sat on their bums.”
In an interview with the Every day Mail, Gareth Dorrian, an area scientist from the College of Birmingham, echoed the view that the journey was nothing greater than a thrill journey for some wealthy celebrities and promoting for the space-tourism firm owned by Bezos, the billionaire Amazon founder.
“Let’s call it what it is and not tell ourselves that it is contributing meaningfully to science or space exploration,” Dorrian stated. “I am afraid I do still think these flights are essentially just joyrides for the super-rich.”
In its glowing protection of the journey, CBS Mornings saved referring to King, the present’s co-anchor, and her two well-known pals, in addition to the three different girls aboard, as “astronauts.”
However as soon as again on earth, King stated she was reluctant to simply accept the “astronaut” title, in accordance with CNN — both as a result of she was being modest or as a result of she suspected it wouldn’t be correct. In spite of everything, the craft was absolutely automated, and she or he and the opposite passengers didn’t really do something to fly it. A number of the extra cynical individuals on-line have likened their journey to a really dear “amusement park ride.”
Forward of the flight, Perry boasted to Elle journal that she and her fellow crew members would put the “ass’ in astronaut.” Throughout that interview, Perry and Sanchez additionally talked up how they might be donning make-up and eyelash extensions to create space “glam.” However as Slate author Shannon Palus identified, Perry could be “putting the ‘ass’ in ‘passenger’ and little else.”
Whereas the time period “astronaut” derives from the Greek phrases which means “star sailor,” three businesses in the US get to formally say who’s an astronaut, in accordance with NBC Information. They’re NASA, the army and the FAA. NASA and the army reserve that designation for workers who meet particular standards, with NASA solely utilizing the time period for these chosen to affix “its corps of astronauts” and who make “star sailing” their profession occupation.
In the meantime, the FAA has needed to discover an official solution to apply the time period within the age of economic house flight, led by such corporations as Bezos’s Blue Origin, Elon Musk’s SpaceX or Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic. In 2021, the FAA tightened its guidelines on who may very well be referred to as astronauts and qualify for “astronaut wings program,” Slate and NBC Information reported.
Underneath FAA guidelines, astronauts are those that fly 50 miles or extra above the earth’s floor on an FAA-licensed or -permitted automobile. Monday’s Blue Origin flight made it greater than 62 miles above the earth’s floor, the so-called Kármán line, which Blue Origin and different organizations think about the boundary of the place house begins.
However beneath FAA definitions, astronauts additionally should display “activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety.”
It’s debatable whether or not Perry, King or Sanchez engaged in such “activities” or made contributions to “human space flight safety.” The opposite passengers on Monday’s flight have been former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, filmmaker Kerianne Flynn and activist Amanda Nguyen.
A technique these girls might have made “contributions” to human house flight was to make use of their movie star to “get people’s attention” and to get the general public “to learn a little bit more about the space program,” Michael Massimino, a former NASA astronaut and professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia College informed CNN.
And, even when Perry, King, Sanchez and the others can’t actually name themselves astronauts, they’re nonetheless more likely to get an FAA shout-out on its listing of people who find themselves “recognized for human space flight.” However as others have identified about business house flight, this listing seems to be populated by people who find themselves very wealthy, well-known or well-connected.
Blue Origin revealed that a number of the six passengers on Monday’s flight acquired to journey at no cost, however others paid to go alongside, CNN reported. Blue Origin refused to say who paid, and it has not revealed its ticket costs, however its chief competitor, Virgin Galactic, advertises ticket gross sales marketed ticket gross sales for between $250,000 and $450,000.
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