Women Went to Space, But Men Still Want to Own It
The all-female Blue Origin flight was a distraction. In reality, male billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk see the cosmos as their domain.
An all-female space crew makes a better photo op than a stack of government contracts.
Photographer: Felix Kunze/Courtesy of Blue Origin
This week, rocket company Blue Origin sent six women to the edge of space, the first time an all-female crew made the trip since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova completed a three-day solo mission more than six decades ago.
The flight included a pop star, a TV journalist, an aerospace engineer, a film producer, and a bioastronautics research scientist-turned-activist. Also on board was Lauren Sanchez, a businesswoman, journalist, author, philanthropist and the fiancée of Jeff Bezos, the world’s second-richest person and founder of Blue Origin. The roster had “the energy of an American Girl doll collection,” as the New York Times’ Amanda Hess put it.