AN “ASTRONAUT” on the infamous celeb-packed Blue Origin spaceflight says she couldn’t get out of bed for a month after receiving a “tsunami of harassment” over the 11-minute trip.
The all-female launch drew huge criticism and ridicule over its jaw-dropping price tag, environmental impact, and the “over the top” behaviour of its star-studded crew once they touched down.
Amanda Nguyen, a 34-year-old scientist and civil rights activist, was one of the six women aboard and has revealed the global backlash left her depressed.
The women flew in Bezos’ own Blue Origin New Shepard NS-31 ship and soared past the Kármán line – the internationally recognised boundary of space – in what was globally called a “cringe fest”.
In an Instagram statement, Nguyen described the news coverage and social media reaction that followed the trip as an “onslaught no human brain has evolved to endure”.
“I did not leave Texas for a week, unable to get out of bed. A month later, when a senior staff at Blue [Origin] called me, I had to hang up on him because I could not speak through my tears,” she said of the aftermath of the spaceflight.
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She said when fellow passenger Gayle King – a US news anchor – called to check in on her in the days following the flight she told her, “my depression might last for years”.
The April suborbital flight was historic for being the first all-female crew since 1963.
Nguyen, became the first Vietnamese woman to go to space thanks to the Jeff Bezos-funded flightbut her achievements and everything she had worked for to get to board the flight were “buried under an avalanche of misogyny”, she said.
She said she had grown up wanting to be an astronaut but didn’t get to realise her dream after she was raped while at university.
Despite the backlash, she said some good had come from the flight, such as more attention to her advocacy work for sexual assault survivors and her women’s health research.
The other passengers included Bezos’ wife Lauren SanchezNASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, film producer Kerianne Flynn and pop-star Katy Perry.
Perry, 41, was widely called “embarrassing” after footage of the Roar singer kissing the ground, holding a daisy to the sky and delivering an emotional speech about “love and belonging” quickly went viral.
She also has reportedly regretted her behaviour on the Blue Origin spaceflight as she faces a wave of conspiracy theories after the historic mission.
And she is now reportedly having second thoughts — not about the mission itself, but how it all played out.
An insider claimed: “Katy doesn’t regret going to space. It was life changing.
“What she does regret is making a public spectacle out of it.”
They added she “never expected this backlash” and is “disheartened” by the “uncalled for and upsetting” reaction.
“And despite the accusations she is still an environmentalist,” they said.
According to the source, Perry also now regrets her “close-up camera moments” inside the New Shepard capsule, where she floated the daisy, sang What a Wonderful World, and promoted her upcoming Lifetimes tour.
The daisy was a tribute to her four-year-old daughter, Daisy Dove Bloom, who appeared publicly for the first time at the launch.
But the insider claimed the “Roar” singer “regrets sharing the daisy with the world” and “wishes the video footage from inside the pod was never shown.”