By Ryan Otteson | Reporter
On April 14, pop star Katy Perry traveled to space along with five other prominent women: U.S. entrepreneur Lauren Sanchez, former NASA scientist Amanda Nguyen, TV presenter Gayle King, former NASA scientist Aisha Bowe and film producer Kerianne Flynn. Most of the attention has been focused on Perry and her somewhat dramatic return to Earth. Upon landing the spacecraft, Perry fell to her knees and kissed the ground after only being in space for just over 10 minutes.
Sending celebrities like Katy Perry to space alongside NASA astronauts and scientists is ridiculous and should not become commonplace. Because the trip was done through Blue Origin, a private space company founded by Jeff Bezos, they reserve the right to do space tourism. However, it is a waste of money and fuel to send celebrities to space for such small amounts of time.
Celebrities do trips like this for entertainment and attention from the public and get much more recognition than actual astronauts, which should not be the case. While it is important to recognize the significance of an all-female crew, Perry should not be getting more attention than the women who have dreamed their whole life of going to space and worked to do so.
Perry should not be considered an astronaut for simply passing the barrier of Earth’s atmosphere into space. According to Sean Duffy, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Perry did not meet the criteria of FAA guidelines required to qualify as an astronaut. To become an astronaut in the U.S., it is necessary to be a citizen of the United States, have a master’s degree in a STEM field, have additional experience in a related field and pass a NASA-specific physical. It is a mystery why the public only hears about celebrities going to space instead of scientists or astronauts going to conduct research.
Yet another reason why space tourism is absurd is the amount of fuel that is being used for something so unproductive. Space shuttles sometimes require hundreds of thousands of pounds of fuel to leave the atmosphere, according to the National Air and Space Museum. Many people, including Perry, have voiced concern for the planet and the importance of protecting the environment. It doesn’t make a lot of sense why someone would preach to protect the environment and then participate in something so harmful to the atmosphere.
While celebrities have the right to spend their money how they see fit, space tourism as a whole is completely unnecessary.
