From the time I was little, Katy Perry has been a fixture in my life. Her popularity peaked when I was around six years old, and I listened to her quite a bit as a child. In recent years, I had no opinion on the woman. She was an artist I liked, and now she has moved onto other endeavors, such as being a philanthropist, American Idol host, actress and fashion designer.
That peaceful illusion was shattered when I learned this pop star flew into space.
Having had little training, Katy Perry was sent into space on Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ historic space flight with an entirely female crew April 5, 2025. Now, this crew had some big names alongside Perry; Gayle King, esteemed journalist and co-host of CBS Mornings; Aisha Bowe and Amanda Nguyễn, NASA scientists; Lauren Sánchez, Bezos’ fiancée and Kerianne Flynn, a film producer. Most of these people had seemingly legitimate reasons to be on the aircraft: helping the rocket fly, reporting on the ride into space and making a film about space travel, but it seemed like Perry was only up there for fun.
The main issue with this musician going to space is the absolute absurdity of the whole thing. While in space, Perry released her new tour set-list, but the writing was too small to read the words on the paper butterfly she brought. She also reportedly sang “It’s a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong and brought a single daisy up on the eleven minute flight to commemorate her daughter, Daisy Dove. When the ship landed, Perry exited and kissed the ground. After her 660 seconds in space, this woman got down and kissed the ground like she hadn’t seen it in ages.
I wish this was a fever dream, but somehow, Perry managed to put even more of a bad taste in people’s mouths after she made remarks such as “We’re putting the ass in astronaut” and “If I could take glam up with me, I would do that … space will finally be glam.”
I just have one question for Ms. Perry: does space need to be glam in the first place? It is, quite literally, space. When I’m watching rocket launches, I don’t think anybody’s looking at “the ass” of an astronaut; I’m more focused on the fact that they’re going to space. With women only making up 28% of STEM’s workforce, I don’t think these dedicated female scientists are worried about how glam they are while doing lifesaving work, and little girls shouldn’t only strive to “put the ass in astronaut” when they get older and want to work in a scientific field.
Overall, I suppose I can’t be too harsh on Perry. She’s a pop star, not an astronaut, and I don’t think anybody expected her to make groundbreaking remarks on how wonderful the opportunity was. It’s just the fact that she seemed to blow this whole thing out of proportion, made comments about women bringing “glam” to space, released her setlist in space, sang Louis Armstrong in space and then kissed the ground as soon as she got down from her barely eleven minute flight. It was ridiculous, if I’m being honest, and I can’t help but poke a bit of fun at it. I just hope the next time we send a pop star into space, we send one whose setlist or new album release we can actually read from the rocket. Taylor Swift, I’m looking at you.
Katy Perry as she performs her hit song “E.T.” at the Prismatic concert in Newark, New Jersey. I think it’s quite ironic that one of her breakout songs was about a space alien, and she’s getting so much flak for going to space. (Photo/Wikimedia Commons)
