(L) U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy; (R) Blue Origin crew members Lauren Sanchez, Amanda Nguyen, Katy Perry, Gayle King, Aisha Bowe and Kerianne Flynn posing in their space suits. Photo:

Kayla Bartkowski/Getty; @nicolasgerardin

• Blue Origin’s April 14 space flight featured an all-female crew including Katy Perry, Gayle King and Lauren Sánchez
• The flight has drawn backlash from such celebrities as Olivia Munn and Jessica Chastain
• “They do not meet the FAA astronaut criteria,” said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in an April 17 X post, questioning whether the Blue Origin crew should be identified as astronauts

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is the latest notable figure to weigh in on Blue Origin’s Monday, April 14, space flight, which featured an all-female crew that included pop singer Katy Perry, CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King and philanthropist and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sánchez. 

In an X post shared on Thursday, April 17, Duffy described America’s commercial space industry as an “inspiring project which showcases American ingenuity and exceptionalism.”

However, the transportation secretary noted that recent Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) guidelines under the Commercial Space Astronaut Wings Program clearly state that crew members 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,” Duffy wrote, “but you cannot identify as an astronaut. They do not meet the FAA astronaut criteria.”

Duffy reshared Blue Origin’s Monday social media post that read: “We just completed our 11th human spaceflight and the 31st flight of the New Shepard program. The astronaut crew included [former NASA rocket scientist] Aisha Bowe, [bioastronautics research scientist] Amanda Nguyễn, Gayle King, Katy Perry, [film producer]Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sánchez.”

The flight lasted under 11 minutes total, as the rocket traveled up to the edge of space before returning to Earth. And while the voyage wasn’t the first of its kind, the NS-31 prompted different reactions with celebrities speaking out about its cost and the privatization of space travel.

Among those who chimed in about the latest Blue Origin trip included Emily Ratajkowski, Olivia Wilde, Amy Schumer and Jessica Chastain, who shared an op-ed from The Guardian on X, titled, “The Blue Origin flight showcased the utter defeat of American feminism.”

Even fast-food chain Wendy’s entered the fray with a comment about Perry on X. 

“Can we send her back,” the restaurant wrote in response to a post that read, “Katy Perry has returned from space.” 

Meanwhile, the crew members who took part in the flight pushed back on the criticisms. 

“Anybody that’s criticizing it doesn’t really understand what is happening here,” King responded at a press conference to PEOPLE about the reaction to the Blue Origin mission.  

“I get really fired up about this,” said Sanchez at the media gathering. “I would love to have them come to Blue Origin and see the thousands of employees that don’t just work here but they put their heart and soul into this vehicle. They love their work and they love the mission, and it’s a big deal for them.”

Bowe turned the focus on how the mission helped space research.

“We advanced science today,” she explained. “More people are going to be able to do meaningful research with Blue Origin because we collected data. … We contributed to the knowledge base of what people know about women. … We are inspiring the world right now.”

Some celebrities have come to the defense of the flight’s participants, including Jessica Alba and The View’s Ana Navarro.

On Wednesday, April 16, Alba reposted a comment on her Instagram from Navarro that urged their followers to focus on politics instead of the historic but controversial trip.

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“I’ve seen endless criticism of five women doing their space thing,” Navarro wrote in the original Instagram post. “I can’t see how it affects our lives.”

She continued, “I wish people would show [the] same energy and focus that anger toward fearlessly denouncing [President] Trump’s abuses of power. Which do affect countless lives in the US and the world.”

Alba reposted Navarro’s words and added one of her own — “This” — along with a finger emoji pointing to the political strategist’s comments.

PEOPLE contacted the Transportation Department and Blue Origin for additional comment on Friday, April 18.

Blue Origin was founded by Bezos in 2000. The company said in its April 14 X post that 58 people have so far gone to space under the New Shepard program.