Uncharted Thoughts.

Wealth and ideological nonsense at its worst.

I have so, so much to say about this Blue Origin space flight. I know Uncharted Thoughts is a little behind the curb, this happened almost a week ago and I am sure most of you have already looked at countless articles on the worst PR stunt of all time, and one of humanities strangest moments to have hit the silver screen.

So, on Monday 6 woman got blasted into space in an all Female Blue Origin space flight. Katie Perry (Singer and philosopher who came up with legendary quotes such as “Is maths related to science” and “I guess I happen to be attracted to high-frequency men.”), Gayle King (TV personality and broadcast journalist), Lauren Sanchez (apparently a journalist, but really just married to Jeff Bezos), Aisha Bowe (a legitimate aerospace engineer),  Kerianne Flynn (Head of HR, film producer and now a ‘Space tourist’ according to her Wikipedia page) and Amanda Nguyen (a “activist” and bioastronautics researcher). These are the people, Jeff decided to send into space as one of the strangest RP stunts of all time.

I think no matter who Jeff sent, there would always be backlash. If he only sent space engineers, astrophysicist and astronauts, the PR stunt wouldn’t have been publicised, and I imagine most people wouldn’t have cared. If he only sent celebrities, then the entire world would have pooped on the idea and it would have been one of the dumbest things we have managed to do with our time on earth so far.

Of course its important to highlight woman going into the space industry. I think the idea of an all female crew isn’t all that dumb. I mean, woman have been blasted off into space before, and have continued to have a massive impact on aerospace since its conception. Be it in administration, engineering or moon exploration. But, woman, men all brains need to be encouraged to aim for this career path. It is essential for the development of our species, as is environmental science, medicine and engineering.

Lets get back on track… Katie Perry.

I don’t know why Jeff or his PR team landed on Katie Perry. Perhaps it is advertising geniusesness. I mean it has got everyone talking about the flight, good or bad publicity is all good publicity. Maybe they knew there would be a massive kick back from the public and it was free advertisement. Or maybe, they read the room completely wrong.

I got a feeling its the latter. I think, Jeff and his team are so out of touch with reality they thought that sending Katie Perry into space with a glorified producer and a TV presenter was ‘relatable’.

Imagine being a woman scientist, working through years of education, fighting for the top spots in some of the most competitive fields, and some rich guy who doesn’t know a thing about space travel, or science decides to send his wife and some random singer into space just because they can. It must be remembered, non of this proved anything, it didn’t teach us anything. It was just done because, well to be honest no one knows why it was done.

This isn’t even the first all female space flight, there was one done in 1963 with Valentina Tereshkova. So what this achieved, no one knows. Besides it being a advertisement for Jeffs new project, this was a waste of time, resources and the chance to bring awareness to genuine issues. Instead it taught girls to marry rich, to seek fame over intelligence and that Jeff Bezos has done nothing with his wealth but play with toys that further our chances of disaster.

This could be, in my opinion the worst show of human capitalism and egotistical investment I have every seen.

This was Blue Origins 31st mission into space. Meaning that the so called “mission” didn’t even help improve any new tech, it just used stuff already done and made it out to be some big step towards space travel. The vice president of New Shepard Business Unit at Blue Origin Phil Joyce said “What a privilege to witness this crew of trailblazers depart the capsule today,”.

What trailblazers? This has been done before, not once, or twice but hundreds of times. Even Blue Origin has done it 11 times already, so what the hell is the fuss about?

I think, after hours of reading through the Youtube comment section on this matter. It was clear most people were upset by the resources used to pull off this stunt. A small proportion were convinced it was made in a Hollywood studio, just goes to show how quickly people are willing to protect themselves from the reality of this terrible decision. And the rest just complained about the fact the “explorers” or Austonaughts”, as some outlets are calling them, were spending 90% of their time in space taking selfies and talking to the live camera. Rather than looking out the window at planet earth.

Then we get to Katie Perry.

Upon landing back on earth after 11 minutes in the atmosphere of our planet, barely even in space by definition. Katie left the ‘pod’ with her hand in the air, holding a flower, a daisy, the flower her daughter is named after. It’s sad to see that not even Katie’s young daughter can escape the PR stunts she is willing to do to be relevant, or deep.

“I feel super connected to love, I think this experience has shown me you never know how much love is inside of you, like how much love you have to give and how loved you are until the day you launch” – Katie Perry after landing back on earth.

Going back to The vice president of New Shepard Business Unit at Blue Origin Phil Joyce quickly after this, inspiring and meaningless quote from Katie. He said ““Each of these women is a storyteller who will use their voices—individually and together—to channel their life-changing experience today into creating lasting impact that will inspire people across our planet for generations”.

Well, Mr Joyce, clearly you weren’t prepared for the storm of bile that came from Katie’s mouth when you said this. Because in all honestly, I think an illiterate, non verbal, medieval peasant could have done a better job at this interview than this “storyteller”.

The “Journalist” who first interviewed Katie said “You are officially an astronaut, how do you feel”. First of all, an astronaut, astron, meaning star in ancient Greek, and nautes meaning sailor, Katie did not go into space, rather hovered for some time in orbit. Now, I am not a scientist, perhaps Katie Price, or one of the other four useless “austronauts” could correct me, but I don’t think this really, really counts as space. And as for sailor, well. I didn’t see Katie or any of the other woman actually touch any controls while in the spacecraft, so… Do you call a person lost in the ocean, sat on drift wood a sailor? I don’t.

Secondly, a astronaut a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spacecraft. Again, doesn’t tick any of these boxes either. Even their suits weren’t designed for space. Just jumpsuits with nice badges on them.

“Daisey’s are common flowers” Katie’s mind continued to project nonsense as less than % of the world watched on bewildered by this whole ordeal, “but they grow in any condition.. they grown through cement… they are resilient”. Looks like Katy isn’t much of a gardener either. Daisy’s do not grow in Antarctica, in the Himalayas, in the Sahara, they are not found in the amazon rainforest, nor in greenland or Iceland. Also, they do not grow through cement, they grow through cracks in the cement. Pedantic maybe, but please stop with this unhinged PR stunt, we don’t need to be lectured by you.

“It is a reminder of out beautiful earth…” yes, thank you for reminding us lady who just got shot out into space by rockets. Now, the Blue Origin can not be knocked completely, although further studies have to be done, this is by far one of the greenest ways of space travel so far, using liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Katy has once again missed the mark with this speech. Katy Perry, has flown on private jets,

“Why was it so important to sing that song” the reporter asked Katy in this god awful interview, remarking on how Katy sang a cover of Louis Armstrong – what a wonderful world as she retuned to earth. So, once again, this female, storyteller and song writer had to sing a song she didn’t write, and one written and preformed by a man? There really was a very surface level of PR on this ‘mission’. Couldn’t this have been the moment she proved why she was there? To speak to us and show us why you are a ‘artist’ in the first place? Why was she there? this song writer? If she can’t even provide us with words worth listening to in an interview following such an ‘incredible’ ‘mission’.

“This is all, for the benefit of earth”. Okay, now with a statement like that surly it has to be supported with the fact of why? why is this a benefit for earth? Because so far, I have seen no evidence towards this claim. See, celebrities are surrounded by yes men, and people they think are their friends. Although they may start as grounded and as ‘activists’ or ‘artists’. It is only so long before they are drowned by the yes men and manipulative people in their lives. They begin to believe everything that is told to them, and that their words have some kind of super power. That they are deep, smart and original.

It reminds me of that scene in Game of Thrones, in season one, I think in the first or second episode. When Daenerys Targaryen’s brother is being told “The people drink secret toasts to your health”. These egotistical shadowed elites think that we, the people give half a flying flip about their opinions. We don’t, we just want to get on with our day in peace and comfort.

Continuing on, briefly. Katy’s comments about the beauty of earth may be seen as deep, by some and raising awareness by others. But Katy owns a fashion brand, both making shoes and clothing. Fashion, as most of you probably are already aware of, it one of the largest contributors to environmental damage on this “beautiful earth”. So while we sit and punish ourselves for throwing the wrong cup in the wrong bin, remember Katy said that this trip was for the benefit of earth and we should listen to her because everyone she talks to says she’s right and that she is an amazing song writer, not that she is a massive contributor to the world demise by having a fashion label and private jet.

“I wanted to model (to her daughter and I imagine the population) courage, and worthiness and fearlessness. I won’t continue much longer. I know I’ve made my point and I am just flogging a dead Katy at this point. But… courage and fearlessness? seems somewhat contradicting. You can’t be courageous if you are not scared? and you can’t be fearless is you are scared? Again, a Katy reminding us why she was the wrong choice for the job. Imagine is Neil Armstrong landed on the moon and said “Looks like Salford”. Not very inspiring or worthy of the effort it took to take him there.

Katy then went into a rant about her mother being some sort of spiritual physic. You know, the name of the capsule was the same as the one her mother gave her as a child, that the feather on the Blue Origin logo was some other sign that she was meant for the job, that sort of rubbish. Katie, asked for a sign from the heaven and her angels delivered.

The interviewer went on to say “You are so brilliant at putting words together and describing moments we can all appreciate later”… I’m sorry, what? She just said not moments ago “”I feel super connected to love, I think this experience has shown me you never know how much love is inside of you, like how much love you have to give and how loved you are until the day you launch”. Possibly the worst dialog I have ever heard in my life. C-list movies have more coherent writers than this…

Katy then went on to give us this “It is the highest, high, it is surrender to the unknown”… thanks Katy, thanks. She’s like a female trump, says words but they have little to no meaning.

Who would I have sent into space if I was the PR executive?

Well, I’d probably have kept Aisha Bowe.

1. An actual f*****g female astronaut.
2. A Astrophysicist or scientist.
3. A legitimate female activist
4. Valentina Tereshkova
5. A Professor or University representative of the science industry.

Above is the symbol used by Blue Origin to promote this NS-31 “Mission and this is what they had to say about it…

• The target star symbolizes Aisha Bowe’s ambition for setting big goals, passion for STEM, and commitment to inspiring future generations.  
• The scales of justice symbolize Amanda Nguyễn’s efforts to advocate for civil rights, break barriers, and empower everyday people to create change. 
• The shooting star microphone represents Gayle King’s commitment to sharing important stories with the world.   
• The firework symbolizes Katy Perry’s global influence across music, pop culture, and philanthropy. 
• The film reel symbolizes Kerianne Flynn’s passion for filmmaking, storytelling, and crafting beautiful narratives. 
• Flynn the Fly, the main character in Lauren Sánchez’s bestselling children’s book, The Fly Who Flew to Space, is along for the ride. The story is about overcoming adversity, inspiring kids with learning differences to pursue their dreams. 

Now, you could argue the first two are valid, but it is clear why the names of the two woman that are often left to last on media coverage are then put at the top of this. Because they actually deserve to be there. I imagine whoever put this list together hoped that our lack of attention span from years of snapchat, Facebook and Instagram reels would have use look away before getting too far down the list.

They really had to dig deep here didn’t they. To find reasons to have these people here. I can physically here Katie’s “global influence across music, pop culture, and philanthropy” being read out as fast as possible in an attempts to hide its absolute bullshittery.

Unfortunately, I don’t really have much positive to take away from this stunt. Except, perhaps, we have learnt just how low billionaires will go to perceive they give a toss about any political, social or economic matters. So far in fact, they’d rather shoot random people off into space at the massive financial and environmental expense, to prove something we already know… woman can do it too. That’s why ever boss I have had since leaving construction has been a woman. The majority of our teachers are woman. They are represented in positions of authority, the Queen, MP’s and PM’s. So what we have learnt here is, the human race will continue to self-destruct and perhaps its best for the universe we do it sooner rather than later.