"You cannot identify as an astronaut"- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy reacts to Blue Origin's space flight featuring Katy Perry and five others

Blue Origin's latest space trip with its all-female crew, including Katy Perry, Gayle King, and others, on April 14, has been under scrutiny since it happened. After the completion of the space flight, the aerospace company shared the news on X. In the post, they called Katy and others the "astronaut crew."

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy took notice of the X post and reposted a reply on April 17. Duffy seemingly discredits the "astronaut" title given to the women, and instead calls them "brave and glam." According to Duffy's post, he wrote:

"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. They do not meet the FAA astronaut criteria."

In the same tweet, Duffy also referred to the FAA guidelines under the Commercial Space Astronaut Wings Program. Duffy said that according to these guidelines, space crew members must showcase activities during flight essential to public safety or contribute to human space flight safety. Sean Duffy made this post based on the tweet made by Blue Origin that read:

"We just completed our 11th human spaceflight and the 31st flight of the New Shepard program. The astronaut crew included Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyễn, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sánchez."

The Blue Origin space trip has been gaining criticism since some netizens have been calling it a waste of resources. Meanwhile, the crew members included Katy Perry, Amanda Nguyen, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sánchez.

Gayle King revealed that Katy was singing Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World during the flight. The entire space mission lasted for about 11 minutes, where the team reportedly went 62 miles above the Earth, which crossed the internationally recognised boundary of space.

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Several celebrities criticized Katy Perry's space flight through Blue Origin with five other women

As aforementioned, it wasn't only netizens who had joked and called out the space trip by Blue Origin. Multiple celebrities have also shared their take on the same, including Olivia Wilde, Olivia Munn, and Emily Ratajkowski.

Model and actress Emily Ratajkowski shared her views on TikTok. In the video, she said:

"That's end time s***. Like, this is beyond parody."

She also voiced the concern shown by many netizens in which they claimed that the trip led to the wastage of resources. Emily further said:

"Look at the state of the world and think about how many resources went into putting these women into space. For what?"

Actor and director Olivia Wilde happened to post a meme on Instagram stories, post the flight. According to the US Magazine, the meme was about Katy Perry coming out of the capsule post-landing. The caption read:

"Getting off a commercial flight in 2025. Billion dollars bought some good memes I guess."

During an appearance on Today With Jenna and Friends, Olivia Munn asked what the need was for the crew in space. Munn even noted that so much money possibly went into the mission, while average Americans apparently couldn't buy necessities.

Actress Amy Schumer posted a video on Instagram in which she jokingly claimed to be added as a member of the space crew. She even described Katy Perry, Amanda, and Lauren as her "guiding lights through this whole journey." Some other celebrities who criticized the space team were Jessica Chastain and Martha Stewart.