This week’s flight of the New Shepard spacecraft, NS-31, and its all-female crew has stirred up a mess of coverage, from tabloids to high-brow journalism outlets. And why not? Six women, led by superstar Katy Perry, were flying into space!

By contrast, Ars Technica has been largely silent. Why? Because yet another suborbital flight on New Shepard matters little in the long arc of spaceflight history. Beyond that, I did not want to be too negative about someone else’s happiness, especially since it was privately funded. Live and let live, and all of that.

However, if I’m being frank, this flight and its breathless promotion made me uncomfortable. Let me explain. Perhaps the most important change in spaceflight over the last two decades has been the rise of commercial spaceflight, which is bringing down the cost of access to space and marks an essential step to humanity becoming a spacefaring species. This rising tide has been spurred in large part by billionaires, particularly Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and, to a lesser extent, Richard Branson.

In the summer of 2021, Branson and Bezos took flights on their own rockets. This fueled the “boys and their toys” and “billionaire joyrides” public perception of commercial spaceflight. My issue with the NS-31 flight is that it perpetuates this perception. True, an all-women flight is definitely not boys and their toys. But consider what NS-31 really was. Bezos wanted to send his fiancée, Lauren Sánchez, to space. And that’s fine. One can imagine that she wanted some attention on her flight, so they invited Perry. And presto, a media sensation and lots of glam. But the resulting spectacle trivializes the important work of commercial space.

Anyway, I decided that Ars Technica should sit this one out. If Bezos wanted to send his fiancée and some friends into space, that was his business. We had other things to cover.