Originally appeared on E! Online
Martha Stewart is unimpressed by the Blue Origin space mission.
The lifestyle guru seemingly shaded the all-female NS-31 April 14 mission that included Katy Perry and Gayle King with a throwback clip posted to Instagram April 17.
In the footage from 2007, Martha can be heard saying that she “experienced what astronauts feel when they reach zero gravity” aboard a Boeing 727 called G-Force One as she floats around the aircraft.
Over the clip, the 83-year-old quoted the opening lyrics to Katy’s hit “Firework,” asking, “Do you ever feel like a plastic bag drifting through the wind?”
As if the clear nod to the Blue Origin crew wasn’t enough, the Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia founder doubled down on her shade by captioning the post, “In case you spaced out in 2007, Martha has always been ahead of her time.”
Of course, Martha isn’t the only celeb who’s taken a shot at the historic all-female space mission, joining a list of names like Emily Ratajkowski, Olivia Wilde and Olivia Munn who have voiced their displeasure with the costly endeavor.
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“That space mission this morning,” Emily said in an April 14 video posted to TikTok of the launch, which was headed up by Jeff Bezos‘ space technology company, “that’s end time s–t, this is beyond parody.”
“Saying that you care about Mother Earth, and it’s about Mother Earth,” she went on, “and you’re going up in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that’s singlehandedly destroying the planet?”
The model continued to argue that the mission didn’t understand what it was going for in terms of the messages it sent to the world.
“Look at the state of the world and think about how many resources went into putting these women into space,” Emily added. “For what? What was the marketing there?”
Meanwhile, Amy Schumer took a more comedic approach to roasting the highly-publicized event by sarcastically saying that she received a last-minute invitation to join the crew.
“Guys, last second they added me to space and I’m going to space,” Amy joked in an Instagram video while holding up a Black Panther toy. “I’m bringing this thing. It has no meaning to me, but it was in my bag and I was on the Subway, and I got the text and they were like, ‘Do you want to go to space?’ so I’m going to space.”
“Thank you to everyone who got me here,” the comedian added. “I’ll see you guys in space.”
Keep reading for more on the Blue Origin launch…
What Is Blue Origin?
Founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos in 2000, Blue Origin is a private space company headquartered in Kent, Washington.
According to its website, the organization aims to leverage space’s resources to benefit Earth as well as expand humanity’s presence in space through increased transportation and the creation of living and working destinations in the low Earth orbit.
Blue Origin says it’s working to achieve these goals by building reusable rockets and engines to reduce the cost of space travel, make space travel more accessible to civilians and drive sustainability.”Our vision is millions of people living and working in space,” Bezos said during a talk at the 2016 Pathfinder Awards. “We want to reduce the cost of getting into space dramatically by focusing on reusability.”
So how much does it cost to book a seat on a Blue Origin flight? While the company doesn’t list its prices on its website, it does note a $150,000 deposit is required.
What Is New Shepard?
Named after astronaut Alan Shepard—who made history when he became the first American to travel to space in 1961—New Shepard is what Blue Origin describes as a “fully reusable, suborbital rocket system built for human flight.”
Six people can sit in New Shepard’s pressurized crew capsule. But don’t look for a pilot seat. Because as Blue Origin’s website notes, “The vehicle is fully autonomous—there are no pilots.”
New Shepard first launched in 2015 as part of a flight test program that consisted of 16 successful tests, which were completed in 2021.
In July of that year, Bezos and his brother Mark took part in New Shepard’s first human flight along with an auction winner that secured a seat for a whopping $28 million. William Shatner and Michael Strahan were also among the travelers to board the vehicle later that year (though they were on separate missions).
The upcoming voyage will mark New Shepard’s 31st mission (hence the name NS-31) and its 11th human flight.
When and Where Is the Launch for New Shepard’s NS-31 Mission?
New Shepard’s NS-31 mission is aiming for liftoff from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One—located among the Guadalupe Mountain range in the West Texas desert—April 14, with the company’s website noting the launch window opens at 8:30 a.m. CDT.
What Will New Shepard’s Journey for the NS-31 Mission Look Like and How Long Will it Take?
“New Shepard astronauts ascend toward space at more than three times the speed of sound,” Blue Origin’s website states. “They pass the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space 62 miles (100 km) above Earth, before unbuckling to float weightless and gaze at our planet. The crew returns gently under parachutes.”
In terms of timing, the company notes the entire trip should take about 11 minutes.
Who Is Part of the Crew for Blue Origin’s NS-31 Mission?
The crew for mission NS-31 consists of singer Katy Perry, CBS Mornings host Gayle King, film producer Kerianne Flynn, STEMBoard founder and former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics research scientist and activist Amanda Nguyen, and former TV anchor Lauren Sánchez (who is engaged to Bezos). In fact, this is the first all-female spaceflight crew since 1963, when the Soviet Union’s Valentina Tereshkova went on a solo mission and became the first woman to travel to space.
Nguyen is making history as the first Vietnamese woman to travel to space, and Bowe is entering the history books as the first person of Bahamian heritage to go where few have gone before.
What Are Some of the NS-31 Crew’s Reasons for Going to Space?
Each member of the crew has her own reasons for being part of this mission.
In a recent cover story for ELLE, many of the women expressed their desire to inspire future generations. For Perry, this includes reminding Daisy, the daughter she shares with fiancé Orlando Bloom, to “never have limits on her dreams and show her that any type of person can reach their dreams—no matter your background, your ethnicity, your economic situation, or your education level.”
As for King, who has been honest about her nerves, she told the magazine she hopes to encourage people to step outside their comfort zones.”Once I do it,” she added, “then the doors will open for so many other people who thought, ‘Okay, I was one of those reluctant people, but now I’m here and I am really, really excited to go.'”And Nguyen noted that, for her, it’s getting the chance to fulfill a “dream deferred.”
“I worked at NASA, I studied the stars—astrophysics at Harvard and MIT—but life got in the way,” she told the publication. “Gender-based violence is a big reason why so many women in STEM don’t continue on with their training, and I was one of those women. After I was sexually assaulted, I traded my telescope to fight for my rights as a sexual assault survivor. I drafted the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights, passed it in Congress and at the United Nations. And then, after 10 years, I was like, ‘I want to honor the person that I was before I was hurt.'”
Does the Crew for the NS-31 Mission Go Through Any Training?
According to Good Morning America, all crew members will also head to the launch site days before the mission for training sessions, which will include getting fitted in their flight suits, becoming familiar with the capsule, learning how to communicate with ground control and going over safety protocols.
However, some members of the crew did their own preparations ahead of the mission.
“I’ve been training for this in some way or another for the last year, but recently I turned up the intensity,” Bowe told ELLE weeks before the launch. “I just completed a NASTAR simulation, where I had the opportunity to actually experience what I can expect to encounter on the flight. For me, the physical preparation is really important. I want to have my body know what it feels like to go up. We’ve got a fighter jet flight booked, and I’m really excited about that.”
Flynn also said she did “several zero-gravity simulation flights.”
“They carve out a Boeing 747 and fly the plane in a parabolic pattern, so when the plane descends, everyone floats up,” she added. “That was to get used to the feeling of weightlessness. So I think I’m going to have some fun with that when we’re up. I also did the NASTAR training in Philadelphia and experienced up to five Gs of pressure.”
Does the Crew Get to Bring Any Personal Belongings to Space?
Just a few things.
King told ELLE she’s bringing some photos while Sánchez shared she’s carrying a stuffed animal of the character Flynn from her children’s book The Fly Who Flew to Space.
As for Bowe, she’s packing a historic object.
“Nancy Conrad, who is the wife of Pete Conrad, the third man to walk on the moon, is a mentor and inspiration to me,” she noted to the magazine. “She said, ‘Your journey parallels Pete’s in so many ways, and so I want you to carry this flag.’ And thanks to the Museum of Flight in Seattle, I actually have the Apollo 12 flag, and that’s going to fly with me.”
Bowe added she’s also bringing plant samples from Winston-Salem State University’s Astrobotany Lab as well as conch chowder that’s been dehydrated for the mission as a nod to The Bahamas.Nguyen is packing personal items as well.
“My mother’s shells from the island she’s a refugee from,” she told ELLE, “and then the other thing is a promise that I made to myself [after my assault]. After I left the hospital, I wrote down, ‘Never ever give up,’ and I taped it to my laptop. I looked at it every day when I was graduating and when I was fighting for my rights—and I will be looking at it for the flight.”
According to her Instagram, Nguyen is also bringing the pen former president Barack Obama used to sign the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Act, the Nguyen dynasty coin and Freetown cotton tree seeds.
What Have Other Stars Said About Blue Origin’s NS-31 Mission?
Some stars have sent uplifting words to the crew—with King getting a send-off video from CBS Mornings featuring Tom Hanks, Megan Rapinoe, Bill Nye, Drew Barrymore and more.
“Best of luck,” the Charlie’s Angels actress said, “and I can’t wait to pick your brain as soon as you get home.”
Others, like Olivia Munn, have expressed criticism.
“What are they doing? Like why?” she said on Today with Jenna & Friends April 3. “I know this is probably not the cool thing to say, but there are so many other things that are so important in the world right now.”
The X-Men: Apocalypse actress then brought up the topic of cost.
“I know this is probably obnoxious,” she continued, “but like it’s so much money to go to space, and there’s a lot of people who can’t even afford eggs.”And Olivia questioned what the mission was achieving.
“What’s the point?” she added. “Is it historic that you guys are going on a ride? I think it’s a bit gluttonous.”King also understands the criticism surrounding billionaire Bezos and the stance some have that this mission is just an ad for him and Blue Origin.
“Listen, it is troubling to me, too,” she told CBS Mornings April 11. “There have been some questions and decisions that he’s made that I’ve actually gone, ‘Huh?’ But I think in this particular case, this is so much bigger than one man and one company. I’ve chosen to separate the two. It’s not a zero-sum game. You can do this on one hand and this on the other hand, and both things can be true.”
