When Katy Perry returned from her 11-minute venture to the edge of Earth’s atmosphere, she radiated the wide-eyed enthusiasm of someone back from a soul-searching gap year. “You never know how loved you are until the day you launch,” she told cameras, beaming.  

But not everyone shared her joy. The backlash was quick and harsh, with many criticizing the hollow feminism at the core of the launch’s marketing campaign. Organized by Jeff Bezos’s private spaceflight company Blue Origin, the mission was seen as the first all female crew in space since 1963.

While there were genuine feminist issues, like a highlight on the Monse-designed space suits that featured work from Oscar de la Rent, the overall messaging felt superficial. One designer noted they were starting from scratch with no standard for women’s suits because “all the references are men’s spacesuits.” This echoes critiques by activists like Caroline Criado-Perez, who has long pointed out that much of our world from crash test dummies to safety gear is designed around the male body.

Still, the focus of the suit design seemed less about functionality and more about fashion. Designers spoke of adding “a little spice to space” and creating a look that was “flattering and sexy.” The decision to exclude pockets because they looked “too bulky” summed up the whole vibe: aesthetic over substance.

Critics also pointed out that the flight was essentially a billionaire-sponsored ad, aimed at selling the dream of luxury space tourism. Blue Origin is competing with companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX to dominate a growing market offering everything from tourist trips to logistics support for official space missions. While both companies claim lofty goals like “making humanity interplanetary” or “envisioning millions living and working in space,” these flights seem more about buzz than breakthrough science.

While they are investing in important technologies, the concept of space ed – tourism is undeniably exciting. We can’t confuse it with space science, the kind that studies our planet, climate change, and our place in the cosmos. Just as corporate girl-power messaging isn’t a substitute for real gender equity, commercial joyrides aren’t a replacement for the critical research done by public agencies like NASA or the European Space Agency.

This launch was more spectacle than substance, progress dressed up in a designer suit and sold as inclusion. Meanwhile, public space institutions are being drained. NASA’s former chief scientist, Dr. Katherine Calvin, a climate expert, was removed by the Trump administration, and the position itself has been eliminated. The agency faces major cuts to its science budget, even as the government funnels more funding to private space ventures.

Space tourism is to space science what snorkeling is to deep-sea research. So it’s fitting that this week’s PR campaign glossed over the slow displacement of meaningful scientific work by extravagant excursions for the elite, hiding behind a thin veil of empowerment.