Blue Origin’s entirely feminine crew managed to go to space, but when it comes to knowing if they are considered astronauts, the old federal directives bring them back to earth.
Earlier this week, the star female flight team from Blue Origin, which included singer Katy Perry and Gayle King journalist, reached the edge of space and entered orbit. Their automated flight has marked an important step for traveling in the commercial space, but also triggered a controversy and a discussion along the way, especially on what it really takes to win the title “Astronaut”.
In an article of April 17 on X, the American transport secretary Sean Duffy described the team as “courageous and glamorous”, but underlined why the team does not have the achievements and criteria necessary to be recognized by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as Astronauts, a designation that has a high bar.
“The American commercial space industry is an inspiring project that presents American ingenuity and exceptionalism,” wrote Duffy in his article. “But the latest FAA guidelines as part of the Espace Astronauts Trade Program were clear: crew members who travel in space must have” demonstrated activities during the essential flight to public security, or contributed to the security of human space “.” »»
The six women of the flight – who, in addition to Perry and King, understood the aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe, the civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, the film producer Kerianne Flynn and the journalist Lauren Sánchez, who is notably engaged to the founder of Blue Origin Jeff Bezos – are very accomplished in their respective fields.
But with regard to their space trip, Duffy says they do not meet the criteria of the FAA.
“The crew that flew to space this week on an automated flight by Blue Origin was courageous and glamorous, but you cannot identify yourself as an astronaut,” continued Duffy’s post on the appropriate terminology concerning what they have achieved. “They do not meet the criteria of the faa astronaut.”
Who is considered an astronaut?
The answer to this varies depending on who you ask.
The astronaut astronaut astronaut program astronaut from the commercial space now retired from the FAA forced travelers to meet two standards: traveled at least 50 miles above the earth and exercised essential tasks for public or human safety of space flights.
The Astronaut Astronauts Astronauts Commercial Program of the FAA was created in 2004 and officially ended in 2021 in anticipation of the era of commercial space tourism. However, the Wings program continues to maintain a complete list of FAA commercial astronaut recipients. Bowe, Nguyen, Flynn, King, Perry and Sánchez are all recognized on the website but are not listed as a recipient of the FAA commercial astronaut wings, because none of them has played operational roles on board.
Apart from the FAA standards, NASA defines an astronaut as someone selected to join their body of astronauts and who made their profession “Star Sailing”.
Meanwhile, Merriam-Webster also uses the profession as a determining factor, noting that the term refers to “a person whose profession is to travel beyond the atmosphere of the earth”. In its broader definition, the dictionary defines an astronaut as “anyone who travels beyond the atmosphere of the earth”.
