The Debate Over Whether or not Katy Perry Is an As...

Jeff Bezos lately despatched a variety of very rich girls to the sting of house, in a goofy media spectacle that possible has Neil Armstrong turning over in his grave. The all-female Blue Origin house flight has impressed plenty of robust feelings from the web, a lot of which have been directed at its most distinguished crew member, Katy Perry.

Certainly, ever because the spaceflight touched down, the web has been ablaze with a heated debate over whether or not the pop singer will be characterised as an actual astronaut or not. The controversy has reached absurd proportions, even impacting editors at Wikipedia, who broke into a discussion final week about whether or not they need to classify the singer as an “astronaut” or not. Unequivocally, all the editors determined the reply was “no.”

“I’m inclined to say no when one transient house journey alone isn’t very defining for her profession,” mentioned an editor referred to as SNUGGUMS. “If there are others she embarks on sooner or later, then we may reassess the matter.”

One other editor, Ravensfire, mentioned, “She’s an area vacationer, it’s not one thing that ought to be within the lead or listed as an occupation.”

“The widespread understanding of what an astronaut/cosmonaut consists of years of coaching and usually some kind of mission,” mentioned RCSCott91. “From the formal perspective of NASA, who extra narrowly outlined the time period, Katy Perry would nonetheless not qualify.”

For no matter motive, America’s new Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, additionally determined to chime in final week. Duffy took to X on Thursday to present a really backhanded praise to the latest house flight, and to let the individuals know that they had been very definitively not astronauts. “The crew who flew to house this week on an automatic flight by Blue Origin had been courageous and glam,” Duffy wrote, “however you can’t determine as an astronaut. They don’t meet the FAA astronaut standards.”

It’s unclear why Duffy felt it was essential to dunk on the Bezos-funded house celebration. Possibly Duffy, who has been busy cutting funding (or threatening to cut funding) to infrastructure and transportation tasks in blue states, needed an excuse to really feel like an actual authorities official.

Perry additionally one way or the other managed to get in a struggle with Wendy’s (you realize, the quick meals restaurant), after the chain tweeted concerning the singer’s return from outer house, asking: “Can we ship her again?” A supply near Perry subsequently told news outlets that the singer was owed an apology from the restaurant: “Wendy’s didn’t make a joke — they made a alternative. Their latest posts on X geared toward Katy Perry weren’t solely disrespectful however blatantly inappropriate.” The supply continued: “This wasn’t innocent banter, this was a billion-dollar model utilizing its platform to publicly demean a lady.” Wendy’s subsequently refused to apologize.

God solely is aware of why all people has chosen to dogpile on Perry when there have been half a dozen different girls on the flight, although maybe it had one thing to do with the singer’s determination to make use of the tour as a chance to advertise her upcoming world tour. Whereas in house, Perry made a video during which she unveiled a chunk of paper with the tour’s setlist on it. A supply near Perry has since told the media that she regrets “making a public spectacle” out of her journey to house.

It ought to be famous that there have been many actual feminine astronauts through the years, whether or not or not you may name Bezos’ latest 10-minute tour an actual “all-female” house mission.

In a fair stupider flip of occasions, the net rabble has additionally determined that—very similar to the unique moon mission—the Blue Origin flight must have been faked. A lot of the conspiratorial musings have centered round a video taken after the house pod landed again on Earth. Commenters mentioned they thought the pod’s door had been opened from the within after which shortly shut earlier than Bezos opened it with a key. The web’s “specialists” declare this could have been not possible, although who’s to say whether or not they’re proper or if it ever even occurred.

The stakes for the Apollo flights had been admittedly excessive (we had been making an attempt to show we had been higher than Russia in order that we may proceed laying declare to the sources of the Third World), so it is smart that the U.S. authorities would have faked them (I’m not saying they did, I’m simply saying the justification was there). What the stakes of sending a pop singer to house are, I’m not fairly certain, apart from the continued relevance of a billionaire’s goofy house tourism enterprise. Which is, you realize, not really that related to most individuals.