Latest news with #Tereshkova
New Indian Express
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
Empowerment? Or just a hollow word?
When Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova spent three days in space, way back in 1963, all alone up there on a solo mission, she was the first woman in space. Since then, over a hundred women have been on such voyages, but the first all-woman space flight since Tereshkova's took place only this month. On April 14, founder Jeff Bezos' rocket company Blue Origin launched six women beyond the Kármán line, in a New Shepard rocket. They flew for eleven minutes in a historical event that was more stunt than space flight. All were public figures: activist Amanda Nguyen, popstar Katy Perry, producer Kerianne Flynn, aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe and journalists Gayle King and Lauren Sánchez (who happens to be Bezos' fiancée). The launch was hyped as being about women's empowerment — a claim that has been laughed down by many. Thankfully, 'giant leaps for womankind', to paraphrase Neil Armstrong, have occurred since Tereshkova's sojourn, and we aren't impressed. Perry has taken the most flak for her participation in this event, and has since said that she regrets some of her performativeness around it. On the other hand, Amanda Nguyen's presence isn't highlighted at all. Nguyen's remarkable story involves having put her astronaut dreams on hold years ago in order to devote herself to working for the rights of sexual assault survivors. For her, the experience is not a bored-billionaire-bucket-list one; it's a deferred dream come true. That said, the thing with a reductive stunt like this is that it makes commentators also make reductive observations. The truth is that the vast majority of human beings are probably medically or otherwise unfit to be launched into space, and we are going to behave in silly ways if we get the chance to — even if a suborbital joyride is all we'll take. Astronauts including Buzz Aldrin had long predicted the rise of space tourism, and it's happening now. It is, of course, restricted to the uber-wealthy. Whether or not space tourism should become accessible to everyone isn't the concern. As for the women's empowerment façade: it's mildly surprising that this tokenistic Blue Origin trip wasn't timed for International Women's Day alongside unveilings of pink-branded ventures, pink dress codes, pink record-setting floral displays, and pink debit cards to use on pink discounts galore. No: the most egregious thing about this event is the carbon footprint and to an arguably lesser extent, the financial cost. That the money involved in this undertaking could have gone to philanthropical causes is obvious to all who have righteous judgment about hyper-privileged expenditure. It's the timing of it — that it happened during a genocide-induced famine in Gaza and a clampdown on civil rights in America — that feels especially distasteful. The timing of it also includes ongoing climate apocalypse. We — all living beings of Earth — cannot escape this burning planet, not even for 11 broadcast minutes. Blue Origin claims that its New Shepard rockets have zero carbon emissions. Even if that's true, they definitely emit nitrogen oxide and water vapour. The environmental cost of space exploration for science can be ethically justified, but shooting celebrities into space for fun and profit simply cannot be.
Miami Herald
14-04-2025
- Science
- Miami Herald
Female only crew launches into space — but it's actually not the first time
Six women recently hurtled into space aboard a Blue Origin rocket, where they glimpsed the Earth from above and briefly slipped the bonds of gravity. But, they weren't the first female-only crew to voyage into the final frontier, experts said. The intrepid mission took place on April 14, beginning at a ranch in west Texas, where Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, has a launch site. The crew — including pop star Katy Perry, TV personality Gayle King and Bezos' fiancée Lauren Sanchez — blasted off in a New Shepard rocket at 8:30 a.m. local time. Within minutes, the automated rocket reached a maximum height of 346,802 feet or about 65 miles, surpassing the Kármán line, the commonly recognized dividing line between Earth's atmosphere and outer space. In a video posted by Blue Origin, the six women can be seen floating in the rocket's capsule, with the Earth and the moon visible from the windows. After detaching from the rocket booster, the capsule fell back to Earth — buoyed by parachutes — and touched down at 8:40 a.m. Asked to detail the experience at a press conference afterward, Sanchez called it 'profound,' adding, 'I'm completely and utterly humbled...' Describing the view of Earth from space, King said, 'It's a neon blue, and it's still and it's quiet … I know I will never forget it.' It was Blue Origin's eleventh human flight into space — and only the second female only trip. First female only trip to space 'I can confirm that this was the second ever all female space launch,' Brian Odom, NASA's chief historian, told McClatchy News. The first such flight occurred in 1963, when Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova was launched on a solo mission aboard the spacecraft Vostok 6, becoming the first woman in space and the only woman to ever go alone. The vessel was piloted automatically, so she never took control over its flight, according to The total flight time lasted about 70 hours, during which Tereshkova — who was 26 years old — orbited Earth 48 times. 'Tereshkova's televised image was broadcast throughout the Soviet Union and she spoke to Khrushchev by radio,' according to the European Space Agency. 'She maintained a flight log and performed various tests to collect data on her body's reaction to spaceflight.' After about three days, the spacecraft landed near Karaganda, a city in Kazakhstan, according to NASA. Comparing Tereshkova's flight to the female-only Blue Origin trip 'is a stretch,' Roger Launius, NASA's former chief historian, told McClatchy News. Tereshkova's 'mission was the first of its kind, and it represented space exploration, emphasis on exploration, in the fullest sense of the term,' he said. In contrast, the Blue Origin flight was 'up and down only' and it left Earth's atmosphere for 'only a few minutes,' Launius said. 'It is not really space exploration but rather space tourism, and there have been many, many women before the current flight going to space.' Since Tereshkova's mission, dozens of women — including many American astronauts — have gone to space, according to the University of California.
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Blue Origin slated to launch all-female flight into space
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – Space technology company Blue Origin is scheduled to launch an all-female flight into space Monday morning, April 14 from its West Texas launch site outside of Van Horn. The launch window begins at 7:30 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time. The flight passengers are: singer/pop star Katy Perry; journalist Gayle King; civil rights activist and research scientist Amanda Nguyen; former NASA scientist and entrepreneur Aisha Bowe; film producer Kerianne Flynn; and journalist Lauren Sanchez, who also is the fiancee of Amazon and Blue origin founder Jeff Bezos. The flight will take them up to the Karman line, which is the internationally recognized boundary of space. They will be traveling on Blue Origin's New Shepard, the company's fully reusable, suborbital rocket system built for humans. Here is what Blue Origin had to say about its New Shepard system, which was named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space. 'During the 11-minute journey, astronauts soar past the Kármán line (100 km/62 miles), the internationally recognized boundary of space, experiencing several minutes of weightlessness and witnessing life-changing views of Earth. The vehicle is fully autonomous — there are no pilots.' This will be Blue Origin's 11th human flight and 31st overall. Liftoff will be from the space technology company's Launch Site One, which is about 30 miles north of Van Horn. Many are dubbing this the first all-female space flight. That is not accurate. Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space when she orbited the Earth in June 1963. It was a solo flight for Tereshkova. Tereshkova spent almost three days in space during her solo mission. According to Tereshkova remains the youngest woman to fly to space, the only female astronaut or cosmonaut to make a solo space journey and the first civilian to go to space. Here is a link to Blue Origin's website where you can watch a webcast of the countdown and mission. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
