I hate space tourism, and I hate just about every use I see of the word "historic," but, of course, you don't want anything bad to happen to the humans hurled upward in a tin can and falling back down to where they started.
Watch on TikTokAstronomy — astrology — whatever — the stars! — it's so interesting!
And speaking of astrology:
112 comments:
Left Shark nods in approval.
Perhaps she will learn that stars don’t twinkle in space.
I’m happy, hope you’re happy too
Is that some malignant rash on her chest or some new fashion statement or both?
Spam in a can.
Katy Perry is a very pretty woman. That's about all I'll say.
Not sure why Althouse's comment made me think of April on Parks and Recreation
I wonder how much more it would cost to do a few orbits? This sort of suborbital trip seems not particularly worth it.
Yancey Ward said...
I wonder how much more it would cost to do a few orbits? This sort of suborbital trip seems not particularly worth it.
Hey! They figured out the G-force rating on Lauren's breast implants. Mission accomplished!
If it had been possible to do a more condescending historic first, Bezos would have done it.
Kate Perry… string theory. Yeah, file under “two concepts that I never expected to hear associated together.”
These canned ‘space flight’ joyrides are strictly for marketing purposes. They are the equivalent of harnessing the technologies of integrated circuits, digital imaging, internet protocols, Wi-Fi and OLED displays so some schlump can veg out on porn.
Personally, I think it was great to see our intrepid first all-female crew blast off in one of Blue Origin's penis shaped rockets!
I guess "I'm so scared I can't sleep" doesn't make for a lengthy interview, so she went free association.
Orbital flight is far more difficult to achieve than suborbital.
Every negative anti-feminist stereotype reinforced in that ruthless way that females do so effectively. What a waste of a moment.
". . . but, of course, you don't want anything bad to happen to the humans hurled upward in a tin can and falling back down to where they started."
Probably true. But think of the entertainment value.
Where 'Mission Creep' was a key risk, as it pertains to implants and fillers.
If they wouldn't, then big news.
Are the rims on the space rover all scratched up? Gas tank empty? Seat to far forward?
"Katy Perry can't wait to see the stars twinkle up close..."
Yeah, you see Ms. 'Scientist Astronaut', the stars twinkle because you're seeing them through the Earth's atmosphere, but see, when you get up into space, there's no atmosphere, and the stars aren't ackshually significantly closer, so.... sorry to disappoint.
Orbital flight requires about TEN TIMES the speed, plus carrying the equipment and fuel required to safely re-enter.
This is the biggest bunch of bullshit ever. They are not astronauts, they are not the crew. They are riders on a very expensive rollercoaster for rich folks. They never left the atmosphere. They came down in essentially the same exact area they left from. I watched it, and all they did was scream and squee the entire ride. The kind of thing you do on a rollercoaster. I'm betting Sally Ride never screamed or squee during her work as an ACTUAL ASTRONAUT. This is about as the first time 6 ladies got on a carnival ride together.
I like Katy Perry. She seems wholesome.
Didn't listen, did they offer some inane commentary about feeling small and insignificant, or is that too out of character for these "look at me" folks?
I'd love to be rich enough to have my own spaceship to shoot my wife into outer space the minute she starts complaining. I'd suggest Ms. Bezos be on her best behavior.
I kissed the sky and I liked it.
So rich libs have graduated from private jets to private rockets.
So much for global warming.
Anything potentially dangerous that has been made routine by men becomes OMG!!! Super Historic!!! when done by women.
and see them twinkle, from that side.. ???
so, should someone tell her? that stars don't twinkle in a vacuum?
interested in astrophysics and astronomy, and astrology..
gilbar has ALWAYS been interested in cosmetology; because i TOO have been wanting to know More about string theory!
It turns out, they're Just long knots..
The WEIRD thing, is how they can get them to change colors..
My favorites are the metallic blues and reds.. but they DO show the roots soon
Think of the drive, the talent, the pitiless determination and grinding hard work required for Katy Perry to get to this point in her career, where she is now called upon to spew that empty-headed drivel about STEM and MATH and string theory and don't forget Pythagoras (?). It calls to mind the observation, that every one of the frozen corpses on top of Mount Everest was once a highly-motivated individual.
Media-fawning event.
I had to struggle to find a single major media outlet reporting on this without having "All-female" in the headline. It was Reuters and it had a picture of the wrong rocket, lol.
There's nothing historical about this at all. Alice Kramden was the first all-girl space crew in the 50's.
so, just to be clear..
this HISTORIC flight showed that 21st century womyn are JUST AS CAPABLE as a 1960's chimpanzee
WOW! who would have THOUGHT?!?!?!?
womyn RULE! not because they're smart, or useful..
but because they let men f*ck, and then they take the men's money!!
… historic all-female crew into space.
They weren’t crew, they were passengers. Katy Perry being termed “crew” diminishes the accomplishments of Sally Ride and Judith Resnick, who were actually capable of piloting their spacecraft.
The most cynical side of me thinks this was originally cooked up to fill the mental place that Musk's space activity has taken in our heads. A simulacrum of progress and science to feed our need for Tomorrowland, while providing no threat to the status quo. Maximum vibe, minimum content. Hope they had fun.
As others have stated, I hate the misuse of the word "crew". They are not the "crew" - they are passengers.
And I sincerly doubt Perry read a book on "string theory" or if she did - she probably didn't get past page 5. But yay engineering and STEM. As the Red letter media guys said: "Science, fuck Yeah".
"I wonder how much more it would cost to do a few orbits? This sort of suborbital trip seems not particularly worth it."
Rough estimate -- about 7000%.
Bezo's New Sheppard really isn't suitable for anything but the amusement of the ultra-rich. Technically, it could put a small payload into a not too steeply inclined LEO, but there are many less expensive non-man-rated boosters available for such tasks so in economic terms the New Sheppard is doing what it does best -- blasting the wealthy and thoughtless into pointless chuckles spasms. As it currently designed, the passenger capsule could not survive reentry from LEO.
thats really space travel, you have to go into orbit for that
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn4fW0EInqw&t=128s
Heard during the flight: “You’re going too fast, SLOW DOWN!”
gilbar said...
“…gilbar has ALWAYS been interested in cosmetology…”
The mother-in-law of one of my brothers ran a very successful beauty shop in the East End of Cincinnati for over 4 decades.
Althouse said…
“Oh, the women got back already.”
“Baby got back”?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X53ZSxkQ3Ho
Since Challenger I have had an aversion to stunt casting in rocket launches. I am glad the flight went off without incident.
"womyn RULE! not because they're smart, or useful..
but because they let men f*ck, and then they take the men's money!!"
Sounds to me like they are smart enough to know how to make themselves useful. Plenty of men can't manage that trick.
Iman said...
Heard during the flight: “You’re going too fast, SLOW DOWN!”
“We should stop and ask for directions.”
Rocco… 🤛
A Space Oddity, for sure.
Althouse said…
“…of course, you don't want anything bad to happen to the humans hurled upward in a tin can…”
Here am I floating round my tin can
Far above the Moon
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do
A firstie (TM) or (C)? #LOL. Social bullshit aside, welcome back, ladies.
"They weren’t crew, they were passengers."
The New Sheppard capsule (it's stretching definitions to the breaking point to call it a spacecraft) follows a ballistic arc, so there's no piloting to do. The pilot is aboard to primarily to keep order among the morons, such as shouting Get back in your seat and buckle up! though he can perform a number of manual overrides such as parachute deployment in case of an emergency.
Regarding my comment at 10:40, I apologize for overlooking Valentina Tereshkova.
Offer to let a woman fly the plane and she refuses, is my experience.
@Quaestor, you mean there really was a qualified pilot on board? Which woman was it?
A happier story than February's historic female-crewed flight from Minneapolis to Toronto, though if I could have sat next to Katy Perry, I might even have been willing to be on that plane.
Dying is the real final frontier.
Tim Young
@TimRunsHisMouth
Things the left tells us are stunning and brave:
- Men who dress as women.
- the wealthy women who went for an overpriced photo op trip to space for a couple of minutes today.
12:41 PM · Apr 14, 2025
@Wince...
Here am I floating round my tin can
Far above the Moon
Planet Earth is blue
I wonder where I can get some curtains that color..
Skyrockets in flight, Bezos' Afternoon Delight.
Katy Perry isn’t into hygiene so she was prepared for the long haul.
Jeez, It only used to take a convertible.
"@Quaestor, you mean there really was a qualified pilot on board? Which woman was it?"
It wasn't Katy Perry. There are many NASA-trained astronauts who never flew a mission. The Shuttle program got killed by Obama many years before the original end date, leaving NASA without the budget to keep dozens of idle astronauts on the payroll. Elon hired most of them. Bezos employs several. One or two are women
Fun fun fun till daddy takes the launch pad away.
They are apparently not the first all female space crew.
From Wikipedia FWLTW:
During the 1950s and 1960s the Soviet space program used dogs for sub-orbital and orbital space flights to determine whether human spaceflight was feasible. The Soviet space program typically used female dogs due to their anatomical compatibility with the spacesuit.[1] Similarly, they used mix-breed dogs due to their apparent hardiness.
There's a String Theory for Dummies you can get thru the Althouse portal.
"So some schlump can veg out on porn."
Hey!
Katy Perry was a Space Cadet even before this flight.
Oh look. Perry didn’t really go to space.
https://www.tiktok.com/@etalkctv/video/7384873752967875845
No "Yeah, they died" TikTok needed, thankfully.
"They are not astronauts, they are not the crew. They are riders on a very expensive rollercoaster for rich folks...."
I agree it's a stupid ride and they are passive passengers, but the same thing was said about the original Mercury program astronauts and they were called astronauts. They were also called "spam in a can."
Katy Perry probably has to deal with people thrusting mics at her a lot. She seems pretty good at babbling sweet nothings.
And the rocket ride seems pretty cool. I'd go. And give Bezo's his due. All Female Crew maybe gets him some breathing room to try to improve the Post without an all female horde chasing him down DC streets.
Ann Althouse said...
"They are not astronauts, they are not the crew. They are riders on a very expensive rollercoaster for rich folks...."
I agree it's a stupid ride and they are passive passengers, but the same thing was said about the original Mercury program astronauts and they were called astronauts. They were also called "spam in a can."
4/14/25, 12:39 PM
They also didn't know if they were going to make it - or, at least, there was a huge risk in doing so.
Now, if the rocket they are riding on actually went somewhere...
"NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...
Katy Perry is a very pretty woman. That's about all I'll say."
Then husband Russell Brand published a photo of her waking up sans makeup. Perhaps why he's long been ex-husband Russell Brand.
stlcdr said... @ 12:46
Bungee jumping is more dangerous.
Don't get me started on Delta flights.
s'opihjerdt said...
They are apparently not the first all female space crew.
Valentina Tereshkova, a Russian woman, flew in space alone, so by definition her trip had an all-female crew.
RE: Althouse's point about astronauts, real and titular.
(From the Wikipedia article on Gordon Cooper)
Like all Mercury flights, MA-9 was designed for fully automatic control, a controversial engineering decision which reduced the role of an astronaut to that of a passenger, and prompted Chuck Yeager to describe Mercury astronauts as "Spam in a can". "This flight would put an end to all that nonsense," Cooper later wrote. "My electronics were shot and a pilot had the stick."
Turning to his understanding of star patterns, Cooper took manual control of the tiny capsule and successfully estimated the correct pitch for re-entry into the atmosphere. Precision was needed in the calculation; small errors in timing or orientation could produce large errors in the landing point. Cooper drew lines on the capsule window to help him check his orientation before firing the re-entry rockets. "So I used my wrist watch for time," he later recalled, "my eyeballs out the window for attitude. Then I fired my retrorockets at the right time and landed right by the carrier."
The word vacuous comes to mind as I listen to Katy. I'm sorry. I wonder how they're going to offset the carbon used for this vanity project.
"Interviewed afterward, the women agreed the ride wasn't long enough and the rocket was smaller than they had been led to believe."
"We are star dust,
We are golden,
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden."
So, Miss Katy is reading up on string theory. I wonder if she was reading Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe, or perhaps one of his more recent books. They're all good. And he may be one of few stars (!) still willing to call Columbia home.
" womyn are JUST AS CAPABLE as a 1960's chimpanzee" Or a Russki pooch.
Well Ann... you can 'space tourism' but that space tourism will one day pave to way to maybe move to the moon (1/3 gravity) and enjoy life without arthritis!
The picture of their return on Yahoo news feed showed one of the strong independent all women crew hugging a big tall strong man - Jeff Bezos - upon her return. Certainly that wasn't a commentary on anything at all, at all.
I think it's pretty historic. Certainly sounds like the ladies all achieved Blue Orgasm.
Katy Perry now has the achievement of the first really hot woman to space travel. There are records yet to be broken in this field however...... I'm not a fan of the space suits that they're wearing.. The women of the Enterprise back when I was young had much better outfits.. Also, is long hair a plus or a minus in space. You get that Bride of Frankenstein look. I recommend a pixie cut for space travel.
mikee said...
“The picture of their return on Yahoo news feed showed one of the strong independent all women crew hugging a big tall strong man - Jeff Bezos - upon her return.”
Hahaha, good one!
"The word vacuous comes to mind as I listen to Katy. I'm sorry. I wonder how they're going to offset the carbon used for this vanity project."
Short answer: None. Neither Katy Perry (someone who cannot disassociate astronomy from astrology) nor her friends impress me as people with sufficient curiosity to learn anything more subtle than Bread good. Carbon bad.
Longer answer: The New Shepard rocket is powered by hydrolox, a type of binary rocket fuel composed of liquid oxygen (lox) oxidizer and liquid hydrogen combustible. No carbon is present in the reaction, therefore GOOD in Perryworld. However, the reaction product is water vapor, a greenhouse emission about 20 times more influential than CO2.
Sorry to disappoint you William!!
William said...
Katy Perry now has the achievement of the first really hot woman to space travel.
https://www.ranker.com/list/the-hottest-female-astronauts-in-nasa-history/jtdesaulnier
Sigh. Historic space tourists? I’m sure it was a great experience, but historic it was not.
@Willuam, @wendybar, and there have been a number of attractive Russian female cosmonauts, starting with Valentina Tereshkova, who was a slender, pretty, busty, 26 year old when she went into space in 1963.
Technically, it's not a "historic all female crew." The Soviet Union launched Valentina Tereshkova into space in 1963. Granted, she was the only crew member but she was definitely a female. (Fun fact: She is still alive and active in Russian politics.)
Ralph L said...
"Then husband Russell Brand published a photo of [Katy Perry] waking up sans makeup. Perhaps why he's long been ex-husband Russell Brand.”
For discussion: https://nypost.com/2010/12/31/russell-brand-tweets-picture-of-wife-katy-perry-without-any-makeup/
They traveled to the “edge of space”.
“I'm an alligator
I'm a mama-papa comin' for you
I'm the space invader
I'll be a rock 'n' rollin' bitch for you
Keep your mouth shut
You're squawking like a pink monkey bird
And I'm bustin' up my brains for the words
Keep your 'lectric eye on me, babe
Put your ray gun to my head
Press your space face close to mine, love
Freak out in a moonage daydream, oh yeah!“
Next time go past teh “Cartman Line”, ladies.
Well, at least she wasn't a firework.
Why do you hate space tourism? What is so different from other types of tourism? The fact that it costs a lot more?
They did put the ass in astronaut.
“Here's Katy Perry's delightfully inane pre-flight commentary”
Imagine the pre-flight commentary when we send women to the moon, as per Joe Biden’s promise. They’ll no doubt share their favorite recipes for green cheese.
Botox survived re-entry! It has already been proven to survive rear entry.
I heard the launch was delayed 20 minutes because Katy Perry and some of the gals were still working on their makeup and hair.
Rocco, if you image search any female celebrity with the words "without makeup" you'll find lots of pics. The one Russell Brand posted seemed to be while she was still waking up. Usually the worst look of the day
Without makeup Katy Perry is much better looking then Taylor Swift. And the both of them an order of magnitude better looking then Madonna without makeup. I prefer seeing women without makeup. As in- I've never seen my wife with makeup. She wasn't wearing any the day we met, didn't have a drawer full of makeup, and hasn't worn any since. And 47 years later, looks just fine without it. I think she has like 4 gray hairs. Family knows she doesn't color it, others ask what she colors it with... it looks so natural.
So when is the historic all tranny launch scheduled.
TikTok back 👆🏽 at 12:36 PM. It will help tremendously to understand my vibe if you watch Star Wars opening scene or maybe recall it from memory.
I should have introduced the premise at the outset... better late than never, i suppose.
My favorite line from Katy Perry was the pairing: "astronomy and astrology" both about those twinkling little stars. But another great moment was her claim to have studied string theory in preparation for the flight. I was thinking that was a book too far, in fact, several books too far when she laughed and said that, of course, she read these books on astrophysics in bed and it helped a lot with going to sleep. Then she mimicked reading the word "Pythagoras" and how instantly her head fell over and she was asleep. I have to say I ended up liking her.
Oligarchs in space?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A12SRLq6sww
Taibbi & Kirn
Ann Althouse said...
"They are not astronauts, they are not the crew. They are riders on a very expensive rollercoaster for rich folks...."
I agree it's a stupid ride and they are passive passengers, but the same thing was said about the original Mercury program astronauts and they were called astronauts. They were also called "spam in a can."
Patently false. The U.S/NASA space program's Mercury "astronauts", and all NASA astronauts up through the Space Shuttle program, were NEVER "spam in a can". Unlike the Soviet guinea pigs (and Russian/Chinese passengers today) nor were any NASA astronauts, on any flight, ever. From Alan Shepard's first flight, U.S./NASA astronauts always had the ability to take full control of their booster/capsule at any time through out their flights (until parachute deployment), and did. There were automated systems used in certain phases of flight, but U.S./NASA "astronauts" always had the ablity to override those systems, and did so, to "fly" their machines. "Astronauts" are by definition "pilots" not "spam".
The Blue Origin/SpaceX rockets and capsules (and their human ballast) have no controls onboard what so ever. Those vehicles are completely automated, or controlled from the ground, through all phases of flight, therefore, those "passengers" are, in fact, "spam in a can".
Once again, people are using popular fiction, in this case Tom Wolfe's book "The Right Stuff" (and the film made from it), as historical fact. Do a little research before you pop off in front of the entire world.
I didn't say they *were* "spam in a can." I said they were "called 'spam in a can.'" So what I said was patently TRUE.
We're only talking about the usage of a WORD — "astronauts."
It's actually a silly word. "Astro" means stars. They went nowhere near any star. And "naut" refers to ocean navigation. They're not in the ocean.
By the way, astrology isn't about stars. It's about planets.
These are goofball words. It's dumb to be fussy about them.
I think the control they put in for Alan Shepard was kind of fake, wasn't it? Trying to make him look like more than the dog/monkey they sent up previously.
I asked "I think the control they put in for Alan Shepard was kind of fake, wasn't it?"
Part of the answer I got from Grok: "Alan Shepard’s suborbital flight on May 5, 1961, aboard Freedom 7 included limited manual controls. He could adjust the capsule’s attitude (pitch, yaw, roll) using a hand controller, but he didn’t "pilot" in the sense of navigating or steering a trajectory. The Redstone rocket followed a preprogrammed ballistic path, and reentry was automated. NASA’s technical report on Freedom 7 confirms Shepard tested attitude control for about 2 minutes during the 15-minute flight, mainly to verify human input against automation. This capability was partly a response to the astronauts’ advocacy, as they wanted to prove they weren’t just cargo. However, calling it "full control" is an exaggeration—Shepard’s inputs were experimental, not mission-critical. The mockery persisted in some circles, but public perception, fueled by NASA’s heroic branding, largely ignored it."
Who controls the discourse?
I see that "NASA still reserves "astronaut" for its trained corps, but private companies and the public often apply it to anyone who reaches space."
I don't really care. I object to the space tourism, so if I cared, I'd say, yes, use language to put these people down.
I will give credit to Gayle King, because I think she was actually terrified and pushed through with it. Look at that stupid bell-ringing video. Maybe they all were scared, but she looked quite scared. So that took real courage.
But why did she make that poor woman go into space? She's pretty old and was clearly terrified. If you want dumb sharing, send Chris Cuomo.
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