Lily Allen joins growing list of celebs slamming Katy Perry’s Blue Origin flight

Lily Allen is the latest celeb to criticise the all-female Blue Origin 10-minute space flight.

Six women, including Katy Perry, Lauren Sánchez, and Gayle King, were on board during the 10-minute trip to the Kármán line, the internationally recognised boundary of space.

Their flight lasted 10 minutes and 21 seconds and took off about 120 miles southeast of El Paso at 8.30 am local time.

The flight’s roster also included aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe, feminist activist Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn.

The flight was the first all-female space team in 60 years and aimed to inspire young women to love science – while also promoting Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, which plans to commercialise space travel for the rich.

The flight has opened up a huge amount of debate, and some celebrities have spoken out directly about the trip.

On her podcast Miss Me? with her co-host Miquita Oliver, Lily Allen joined in the chorus of criticism against the flight.

The clip, posted by BBC Sounds, begins with Lily saying: ‘Katy Perry and her mates going up to space for 12 minutes…’

Miquita responds: ‘If they’re going to go up to space for 12 minutes we can talk about it for 10 seconds and that’s about all it deserves.’

Lily then says, ‘I mean what the f***ing hell is that all about?’

After Miquita says how the celebs went to the inner regions of space to get ‘a bit of that floating feeling,’ Lily says, ‘I just think its so out of touch we’re on the brink of a recession, people are really struggling to make ends meet, it just seems like things are hard at the moment.’

Miquita questions, ‘Not really the most appropriate time to send Katy Perry into space?’

Lily agrees, saying: ‘For absolutely no reason! It’s like we send people to space to discover things, for scientific reasons.’

After Miquita says it was bad timing, Lily says with evident outrage: ‘And the fact that they’ve made it like some sort of feminist thing!’

Gayle King has vocally defended herself against critics of the flight.

Speaking to CBS Morning, she said: ‘Space is not an either or, it’s a both and, and because you do something in space doesn’t mean you’re taking anything away from Earth. And what you’re doing in space is trying to make things better here on Earth.’

‘What Blue Origin wants to do is take the waste here and figure out a way to put it in space to make our planet cleaner. Jeff Bezos has so many ideas, and the people that are working there are really devoted and dedicated to making our planet a better place. That’s number one.

‘There was nothing frivolous about what we do.’

She added that she was ‘saddened’ by the criticism of the flight.

‘So, you know, I’m very disappointed and very saddened by it [the criticism]. And I also say this — what it’s doing to inspire other women and young girls? Please don’t ignore that. I’ve had so many women and young girls reach out to me, and men too, by the way.

‘Men too that say, “Wow, I never thought I could do that, but I see you doing it at this stage of your life.”‘

Lily hasn’t been the only celebrity to speak out against the mission. Emily Ratajkowski told her TikTok followers: ‘That space mission this morning? That’s end time s**t. Like, this is beyond parody.

‘That you care about Mother Earth and it’s about Mother Earth, and you’re going up in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that’s single-handedly destroying the planet?’

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

‘And then to try to make it like… I’m disgusted. Literally, I’m disgusted.’

In a lengthy post on social media, Vicky Pattinson shared: ‘This isn’t feminism.

‘They want to distract you with this so you don’t focus on the fact that slowly, almost imperceptibly, women’s rights are being taken away.

‘I don’t think we need to see a bunch of uber rich women fired into space in a schlong shaped space ship for 5 minutes… we need equal pay, access to reproductive healthcare, the right to vote, to feel safe, autonomy over our own bodies, the right to safe, accessible abortion.

‘When I think of all the things this money could have been used to do, I honestly feel ashamed. We’re living in a world where children are starving, old people are dying in their homes, little girls are being forced into marriage as young as 9, women are dying due to a lack of access to healthcare.. and THIS was deemed as a SMART use of all that money.

‘You might think you have the privilege of watching these gender wars burn from the sidelines.. but you don’t, they’re getting closer and closer to home. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted by shiny rockets and famous faces- stay informed, stay loud and be unapologetic in your support of women’s rights.’

Amy Schumer also joked about the mission.

‘Guys, last second they added me to space and I’m going to space,’ she said in a video on social media as she held a black panther toy – mocking Katy, who brought a daisy to represent her daughter Daisy.

‘I’m bringing this thing. It has no meaning to me, but it was in my bag and I was on the Subway, and I got the text and they were like, “Do you want to go to space?” so I’m going to space.’

‘Thank you to everyone who got me here, I’ll see you guys in space.’

Olivia Wilde shared a meme on her social media that showed Katy Perry kissing the ground with the caption: ‘Getting off a commercial flight in 2025 #BlueOrigin.’

Olivia then commented: ‘Billion dollars bought some good memes I guess.’

Olivia Munn called the mission ‘gluttonous’ while guest co-hosting Today With Jenna & Friends on April 3.

‘What are they doing, like why?’ Olivia, 44, said. ‘I know this probably isn’t the cool thing to say, but there are so many other things that are so important in the world right now.’

‘I know this is probably obnoxious, but like, it’s so much money to go to space, and there’s a lot of people who can’t even afford eggs.

‘What’s the point? Is it historic that you guys are going on a ride? I think it’s a bit gluttonous. Space exploration was to further our knowledge and to help mankind.

‘What are they gonna do up there that has made it better for us down here? I don’t know if all that rocket fuel is good, this is a lot of resources being spent.’

Speaking to People, Sánchez, who is Bezos’ fiancée, also defended the flight.

‘I get really fired up,’ she said. ‘I would love to have [critics] come to Blue Origin and see the thousands of employees that don’t just work here but they put their heart and soul into this vehicle.

‘They love their work and they love the mission and it’s a big deal for them.

‘So when we hear comments like that, I just say, “Trust me. Come with me. I’ll show you what this is about, and it’s, it’s really eye-opening.”‘

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