Not everyone was clapping for Jeff Bezos’ latest successful venture into space — especially not Olivia Wilde.
The Don’t Worry Darling director had some blunt thoughts about Blue Origin’s headline-grabbing all-female space crew -- which included her fellow A-lister Katy Perry.
The historic launch on Monday, April 14, was the first all-female flight for the New Shepard rocket and sent six high-profile women just beyond Earth’s atmosphere. But Wilde wasn’t impressed.
Also on board the capsule was journalist Gayle King, philanthropist Lauren Sánchez, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics expert Amanda Nguyen, and producer Kerianne Flynn.
Taking to Instagram Stories, Wilde shared a meme showing Katy Perry kissing the ground after exiting the capsule, with the sarcastic caption: “Getting off a commercial flight in 2025 #BlueOrigin.”
The meme came from real post-landing footage: one image showed Perry grinning while holding a daisy, a tribute to her daughter Daisy Dove Bloom, whom she shares with Orlando Bloom. The other showed her kissing the desert dirt after returning to Earth after a 11 minutes off the ground.
Alongside the meme, Wilde wrote: “Billion dollars bought some good memes, I guess.”
The group spent a brief 11 minutes on the edge of space, just long enough to float near the Karman Line before re-entering Earth’s atmosphere and landing in Texas.
But as the photos rolled in and applause circled the internet, Wilde wasn’t alone in questioning the trip’s purpose — or its price tag.
Olivia Munn also voiced her skepticism while co-hosting Today with Jenna and Friends, saying: “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.”
She continued: “It’s so much money to go to space, and there’s a lot of people who can’t even afford eggs.” Munn called the mission "gluttonous".
Model and actress Emily Ratajkowski echoed that frustration in a Monday TikTok, calling the event “beyond parody.”
“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?” she asked. “I'm disgusted. Literally, I'm disgusted.”
And Amy Schumer jumped in with a jab, joking on Instagram that she had a “last second” invite to go to space. “I'm bringing this thing,” she said while holding a random Black Panther toy. “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.”
But Blue Origin’s Lauren Sánchez wasn’t having it. At a press conference after the flight, she pushed back against the backlash: “I would love to have them 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,” she said. “They love their work and they love the mission and it's a big deal for them.”
She added: “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 really eye-opening.'”
Gayle King also addressed the criticism head-on. “Anybody that’s criticizing it doesn’t really understand what is happening here,” she said. “We can all speak to the response we're getting from young women from young girls about what this represents.”
While some see a new milestone for women in spaceflight, others just see an expensive PR stunt. Either way, the memes are landing just as hard as the capsule did.