Katy Perry’s controversial flight to space happened three months ago, but Mariah Carey just found out: Here’s what she said
Speaking to the BBC this week, Mariah Carey seemed totally unaware that her fellow singer, Katy Perry, had flown to space.
It was an event that dominated headlines earlier this year, attracting widespread - and largely negative - comment. But Blue Origin’s all-female mission into space appears to have flown under Mariah Carey’s radar.
In an appearance this week on BBC Radio’s The Scott Mills Breakfast Show, Carey was a picture of bewilderment when asked about the spaceflight, whose crew included fellow singer Katy Perry.
“Did she go to space?”
“Would you fancy going to space - you know, like Katy Perry did?” Mills asked Carey, a performer best known for her Yuletide smash hit “All I Want for Christmas is You”.
Evidently unaware of what Mills was referring to, the 56-year-old replied: “Did she go to space?”
Told that Perry “went into orbit and back” (it was actually sub-orbit), Carey said: “Into orbit and back? She’s like floating in the… And this is true? Wow. Alright, Katy. I’m not mad at her - that’s pretty amazing.”
Asked whether she would like to emulate Perry’s spaceflight, Carey was categorically not taken with the idea. “I think I’ve done enough,” she told Mills.
Perry flies to space in Bezos-backed trip
In April, Perry was on a six-woman crew that completed an 11-minute flight into sub-orbital space, as part of a space-tourism program run by Blue Origin, a company created by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The crew also included Bezos’s then-fiancée Laurie Sánchez - who married the billionaire businessman in a lavish Venice wedding in June - and the TV personality Gayle King.
The spaceflight, whose all-female crew was the first since the Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova completed a solo mission in 1963, faced significant criticism.
“What’s the point?”
For example, the prominent political commentator Ameshia Cross dismissed the flight as “a vanity project for celebrities”, while the Hollywood actor Olivia Munn labeled the trip “gluttonous”.
Speaking on NBC’s Today Show with Jenna & Friends, Munn said: “What’s the point? Is it historic that you guys are going on a ride?”
The Your Friends and Neighbors star added: “Space exploration was to further our knowledge and to help mankind. What are they gonna do up there that has made it better for us down here? I mean, I don’t know if all that rocket fuel is good. This is a lot of resources being spent.”
Other well-known figures who called out the mission included the model Emily Ratajkowski, the comedian Amy Schumer and the filmmaker Olivia Wilde.
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