40 Comments
User's avatar
Liz Plank's avatar

who else just wants healthcare

Expand full comment
Ken's avatar

Yup. I managed a rural healthcare center that did just that: quality healthcare for everyone regardless of their ability to pay. Period. One of THE best jobs I ever had.

Expand full comment
Liz Plank's avatar

on behalf of all of us, thank you ken ❤️

Expand full comment
Ken's avatar

And keep up what you are doing Liz, YOU are awesome!!!

Expand full comment
Liz Plank's avatar

i wish we could celebrate women in STEM without making jeff bezos richer 🤮

Expand full comment
Emerson White's avatar

This doesn't make him richer. Jeff Bezos will never be in the black on Blue Origin. Chances are quite high that he paid for this whole flight. And he tripped and fell on his face on camera too.

Expand full comment
Liz Plank's avatar

grwm to go to space while the whole world burns

Expand full comment
Robert DeBell's avatar

I'll never forget the name of a woman who went to space with meaning and integrity Sally Ride.

Expand full comment
Liz Plank's avatar

i’m so glad she is being talked about today!! at least one good thing has come out of it!

Expand full comment
Celeste Davis's avatar

It’s giving that “empowering” scene in Avengers End Game

where they span all the women fighters in spandex. Demonstrating their support of girl power not by giving women their own movies, main characters or even personalities, but by allowing their presence in the patriarchal male fantasy.

Expand full comment
Luke Watson's avatar

nailed it.

Expand full comment
Emerson White's avatar

Brie Larson, and Elizabeth Olsen, and Letitia Wright all got their own movies or series in the MCU. I don't anyone by Karen Gillan played a character who got any significant development in endgame, men included. The movie was mostly action sequences strung together.

Expand full comment
Barbara's avatar

Space tourism for rich people disgusts me. I don’t care how accomplished this group is, (or not), the lack of self awareness is a testament to where we are today. Why would any of these women, except Sanchez, think it’s ok to do ANYTHING associated with Bezos?

Expand full comment
Emerson White's avatar

On the one hand all of Jeff Bezos's philanthropic leanings around Blue Origin feel very performative. On the other hand every female science or engineering influencer I follow seems to be excited about this. Stuff like this is important for getting girls interested in math and science. If there are going to be women in the room making decisions about engineering in the future there have to be little girls who are today inspired like little boys were inspired by Alan Shepherd.

While water vapor in the stratosphere is the worst place for it to be from a global warming perspective it has been tested and project highwater in 1962 showed that it really doesn't stick around. The major concern is probably the energy, and I'll bet that Jeff Bezos's sail boat uses more fuel sitting in the marina every week than it would take to make the ~3600kg of hydrogen used per flight. It is only a 100km flight, and it uses about the same amount of energy per person as flying two people from LA to Australia and back.

All of that being said, I would love to see you and Emily Calandrelli (@thespacegal on IG) have a discussion about this flight.

Expand full comment
Ruha's avatar

As a female engineering influencer (@futurecheme for proof) I can tell you that it’s near career suicide not to behave as though we’re in favor of this. And yes, it’s incredibly exciting to see our friends, like Emily, and Amanda, getting to go fulfill their dreams and want to support them. But I am 100% behind what Liz says in this article. Gayle King said the only reasonable thing of the day in response to “Congratulations, you’re an astronaut!” She replied: “Well, I still won’t accept that term.”

Expand full comment
Liz Plank's avatar

thank you it’s such a tough position to be in to have to criticize this but my god what a shit show

Expand full comment
Kathy Mireault's avatar

Definitely a cringe event! Thanks, Liz.

Expand full comment
Ryan Herrmann's avatar

It's straight up performative feminism. With feminism being used incredibly light. Nothing about this trip was impressive, it's a glorified rollercoaster. It's fully automated. All the celebrity blue origin flights are fully automated. Slapping All-women crew doesn't make it any more acceptable.

This wasn't even the first All-Women crew as Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, was a solo mission in a flight she actually operated for 3 days in outer space.

The link below actually lists the women who deserve recognition.

https://19thnews.org/2025/04/women-space-historic-firsts-blue-origin/

Expand full comment
Liz Plank's avatar

justice for valentina tereshkova!!!

Expand full comment
Maura Manor's avatar

one of my faves of yours yet, liz!

Expand full comment
Liz Plank's avatar

❤️❤️❤️

Expand full comment
AndersKrag's avatar

What's feminist about this stunt - plenty of women have already visited space ;-)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_women_astronauts

Expand full comment
Liz Plank's avatar

i’m glad they’re getting attention today!!!

Expand full comment
Milly Schmidt's avatar

Didn't think there was a way to make going to space cringe but Katy Perry nailed it

Expand full comment
Neil Keicher's avatar

If Jeff bozos is such a feminist, then why did he design his spaceship to look like a giant dick?

Expand full comment
Liz Plank's avatar

WE DEMAND ANSWERS

Expand full comment
Melanie Dion's avatar

This whole stunt was disgusting. Omg sweet Bernie still fighting the good fight 😭

Expand full comment
Liz Plank's avatar

BERNIE WOULD NEVER

Expand full comment
Ken's avatar

Yep, just another multi-million stunt. So far it has been Musk and now Bezos - who & what's next? Also, it would be nice if people would just say no to these things but even for someone like Amanda Nguyen it is difficult to turn away from what they believe will be an opportunity to get their message out.

Expand full comment
Stephen Hendricks's avatar

I’d have been more impressed if the women on this adventure would have met at some metropolis street corner bus stop and used public transportation to get to their destination - perhaps going out for lunch. Otherwise in the penis pod they rode in, they were just passengers breathing bottled air and bullshitting about how lucky they were to be so lucky.

Expand full comment
Liz Plank's avatar

PENIS POD 😭😭😭😭

Expand full comment