Donald Trump’s U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was not so impressed by Katy Perry and her all-female team of space travelers. “The crew who flew to space this week on an automated flight by Blue Origin were brave and glam, but you cannot identify as an astronaut,” Duffy wrote in response to a post from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin company applauding the “astronaut” crew. “They do not meet the FAA astronaut criteria.” Duffy’s remarks come just days after Bezos’s Blue Origin took his fiancée Lauren Sánchez, along with Gayle King, Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyễn, and Kerianne Flynn on an 11-minute-long excursion into space. In 2021, the FAA updated its Commercial Space Astronaut Wings Program to require essential activity during flight and a minimum altitude of 50 miles. The all-female flight crew surpassed this, reaching 62 miles—but apparently nothing they did up there was considered “essential.”
The U.S. commercial space industry is an inspiring project which showcases American ingenuity and exceptionalism. But the last FAA guidelines under the Commercial Space Astronaut Wings Program were clear: Crewmembers who travel into space must have “demonstrated activities during… https://t.co/n2DxpNh4Hy
