The latest celebrity space mission aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard capsule has triggered a new tsunami of conspiracy theorist skepticism as well. Their contention is that the trip was an all women crew venture. It probably didn’t reach the aspirational summits that are often a byproduct of any historic space flight. The New Shepard capsule, funded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, barely scraped into space just last month. All of this begs the question of whether this trip is, in fact, a legitimate trip.
As the capsule returned to Earth, this was not the standard re-entry burn with accompanying high temperatures. This unexpected twist of fate has left room for critics to question the legitimacy of the mission. The New Shepard capsule, which has flown 32 successful suborbital missions, made its first flight in December 2017. During its first uncrewed development test flight, it carried a crash test dummy on board and returned safely.
This year’s mission had a stunningly talented crew of leaders who were all female for the first time. These included TV personality Gayle King, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, film producer Kerianne Flynn and Lauren Sánchez, the fiancée of Jeff Bezos. While their participation brought huge visibility to the event, opponents are still not convinced that the mission can succeed.
Critics are pointing out a picture making the rounds on the internet purporting to show the New Shepard capsule. The above picture isn’t from the real NS-31 launch. The capsule has an outward-opening door from each side. This design accomplishes the NASA safety requirement that hatches must be operable by one crew member within 60 seconds – from both sides of the hatch.
Many people have written in to share their skepticism about the mission’s assertions. Allen, a vocal skeptic, commented, “I mean, what the fucking hell is that all about? In all seriousness: What? Why? For why? (…) I think they just went out of the atmosphere and then turned around and came back again. This isn’t any other mission where they didn’t hitch a ride to the moon or some shit.
Allen further added to the discourse by addressing socioeconomic issues, stating, “We’re on the brink of recession, people are really fucking struggling to make ends meet and get food on their table. I don’t know about how things feel in London, but in New York it feels fucking expensive at the moment. It’s hard to leave the house without spending 500 dollars – and I’m not even joking.”
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