Does Blue Origin’s all-female spaceflight mean anything for women?

Good morning! Sarah Palin's libel suit against New York Times in retrial, Ark Invest's Cathie Wood thinks Trump's tariffs could lead to trade deals, and Blue Origin's spaceflight had some moving moments among the flash.

- Ready to launch. I’ll admit it, I'm a space skeptic. When I see billionaires spending millions on a suborbital trip to near-space, my first thought is usually (like Olivia Munn) all the other things that money could go toward on Earth. (“People can’t even afford eggs,” Munn said while guest-hosting the Today show last week.) The marketing rollout of Blue Origin’s trip of six women, dubbed the first “all-female spaceflight,” wasn’t quite doing it for me. There was too much talk of lash extensions flying around in zero gravity and putting the “ass” in astronaut—and promises that the flight would inspire people, without much of a rationale for why. 

But I was on the ground at Blue Origin’s remote Launch Site One in the West Texas desert yesterday, and watching the newly-minted astronauts return to Earth with tears in their eyes and a new perspective on the world—like them, I was moved. 

The morning started for me at 2:30 a.m. with a convoy of more than a dozen cars, winding out of pitch-dark Van Horn, Texas, past an “authorized personnel only” neon sign. Eventually, the sun rose over the rocky terrain as friends and family—including Oprah Winfrey, Orlando Bloom, and two Kardashians—cheered on the soon-to-be space travelers. Blue Origin’s rocket launched relatively quietly, but a sonic boom echoed minutes later. 

By 8:45 a.m., the usually perfectly-composed Lauren Sánchez—Jeff Bezos’s fiancée and the person who convened Katy Perry, Gayle King, rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, film producer Kerianne Flynn, and activist Amanda Nguyen to join her for Blue Origin’s 11th human spaceflight—was coming down from the atmosphere with her hair mussed, sounding truly overwhelmed and calling for her three kids, her “babies.” Gayle King, an anxious flyer on a regular airplane and the most scared among the six, embraced the ground, thanked Jesus, and swore she could now tackle any fear. Amanda Nguyen, a sexual assault survivor who had always dreamed of traveling to space, brought with her the hospital band from the night she was assaulted and watched it float in zero gravity. 

When Blue Origin or the flyers themselves talk about the impact of NS-31, that raw emotion hasn’t always translated. Genuine feeling has drowned in platitudes. Leading up to the launch, what felt more urgent were the challenges facing professional astronauts and scientists right now. The latest reporting shows President Donald Trump cutting 20% from NASA’s budget—and 50% of its science budget. NASA, like the rest of the federal government, axed its DEI leader; NASA's chief scientist was let go. A pledge to put a woman and person of color on the moon disappeared from NASA’s website. In these circumstances, what meaning does it really have for women to send a pop star to space?

But the problem, ultimately, isn’t sending women to space. It’s everything that’s wrong on Earth. One day, hopefully NASA will front an all-female spaceflight of true astronauts. In the meantime, though, why should commercial space travel be solely the domain of the world’s richest men? The flyers spoke of making this experience more accessible for everyone—but how exactly remains to be seen. 

Sánchez said the women who were going to space are all storytellers, and that’s how she thought they could inspire others. Before the flight, it was unclear what that meant. After seeing their profound reactions, it’s obvious each traveler should have a story to tell. The real test will be what these women do back on Earth. 

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com

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