Katy Perry Space Trip

2025Celebrity event / viral backlashdeclining

Also known as: Blue Origin All-Female Space Mission Memes · Katy Perry Blue Origin Memes

Katy Perry Space Trip refers to the massive wave of memes, jokes, and online backlash that followed pop singer Katy Perry's participation in the Blue Origin NS-31 suborbital space flight on April 14, 2025. The 11-minute flight, billed as the first all-female crew in space since 1963, drew ridicule from celebrities, brands, and millions of social media users who mocked the trip's brevity, Perry's theatrical ground-kissing upon landing, and what critics called tone-deaf celebrity privilege during a time of economic anxiety.

katy perry memesspace tourism memescelebrity backlash memespop star memesscandal memes

Overview

On April 14, 2025, Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket launched mission NS-31, carrying an all-female crew that included Katy Perry, CBS anchor Gayle King, Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos's fiancée Lauren Sánchez, former NASA engineer Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, and film producer Kerianne Flynn1. The flight lasted 10 minutes and 21 seconds, reaching suborbital space before returning to the launch site in West Texas1.

The internet's response was immediate and brutal. Within hours, the flight became one of 2025's most memed events, with jokes targeting everything from the comically short duration to Perry kissing the ground after landing. Celebrity critics piled on, Wendy's fast food chain joined the roast, and conspiracy theorists claimed the whole thing was faked. Slate compared the mission to the widely mocked 2020 celebrity "Imagine" sing-along video.

The memes began forming in real time on April 14, 2025, as the Blue Origin NS-31 flight was broadcast live. The mission had been organized by Lauren Sánchez and promoted as a historic all-female spaceflight, the first since cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova's solo mission in 19631. Perry documented the experience on social media, including singing Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" during the flight.

The backlash ignited on Twitter/X almost immediately after splashdown. Model Emily Ratajkowski posted that she was "disgusted," writing: "Saying that you care about Mother Earth and it's about Mother Earth, and you're going up in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that's singlehandedly destroying the planet". Olivia Wilde shared a meme of Perry exiting the spacecraft captioned "Getting off a commercial flight in 2025," while also saying she was "loving the memes".

The moment that crystallized the meme wave came when Perry dropped to her knees and kissed the ground after landing. That image spread across every platform within minutes.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter/X (initial backlash), TikTok and Instagram (meme spread)
Creator
Unknown
Date
2025

The memes began forming in real time on April 14, 2025, as the Blue Origin NS-31 flight was broadcast live. The mission had been organized by Lauren Sánchez and promoted as a historic all-female spaceflight, the first since cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova's solo mission in 19631. Perry documented the experience on social media, including singing Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" during the flight.

The backlash ignited on Twitter/X almost immediately after splashdown. Model Emily Ratajkowski posted that she was "disgusted," writing: "Saying that you care about Mother Earth and it's about Mother Earth, and you're going up in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that's singlehandedly destroying the planet". Olivia Wilde shared a meme of Perry exiting the spacecraft captioned "Getting off a commercial flight in 2025," while also saying she was "loving the memes".

The moment that crystallized the meme wave came when Perry dropped to her knees and kissed the ground after landing. That image spread across every platform within minutes.

How It Spread

The first major brand to jump in was Wendy's. Under a Pop Crave post celebrating Perry's return, the fast food chain's X account wrote: "Can we send her back". Wendy's also riffed on Perry's hit song with a twist on "I Kissed a Girl" after she kissed the ground. When called out, Wendy's refused to apologize.

Kesha, Perry's longtime rival due to the Dr. Luke legal dispute, posted a selfie on X wearing sunglasses and sipping from a Wendy's cup. The post was widely interpreted as a pointed endorsement of the roast.

Comedian Caitlin Peluffo posted a viral video satirizing Perry and Sánchez that racked up massive engagement. One tweet joking that Gayle King revealed Perry "sang in space" and quipping "no wonder they came back so quickly" pulled over 400,000 likes in two days.

Other celebrities who publicly criticized the flight included Lily Allen, who called it "out of touch" and slammed sending Perry to space "for absolutely no fucking reason". Amy Schumer and Olivia Munn also posted critical commentary. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy disputed the crew's astronaut title, stating they did not meet FAA criteria because they had not demonstrated "activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety".

By April 16, conspiracy theories were already spreading. Users on X pointed to Perry's hair "floating the wrong direction," a capsule door that appeared to open before Bezos opened the hatch, and the lack of re-entry burn marks on the capsule. The "fake hand" theory gained traction when a photo circulated showing what appeared to be a mannequin hand inside a Blue Origin capsule, though the image was actually from a 2017 unmanned test flight.

In the UK, the activist group Everyone Hates Elon installed protest posters near Amazon's headquarters in Shoreditch reading "If you can afford to send Katy Perry to space, you can afford to pay more taxes" and near an Amazon Fresh store in Angel with posters captioned "Our tax avoidance is out of this world, just ask Katy Perry".

On April 23, Perry addressed the criticism during her Lifetimes Tour in Mexico City, asking the crowd "Has anyone ever called your dreams crazy?". She later wrote in a social media comment that she felt "battered and bruised" but was "looking to the light". Reports surfaced that Perry didn't regret going to space but did regret "making a public spectacle out of it". Lily Allen later apologized on her Miss Me? podcast on April 28, saying "There was actually no need for me to bring her name into it, and it was my own internalized misogyny".

Platforms

Twitter/XTikTokInstagram

Timeline

2025-01-01

Katy Perry Space Trip first appeared on Twitter/TikTok

December 2024

Initial news or speculation about Katy Perry space trip

February 2025

Decline as novelty wears off

January 2025

Memes rapidly spread online

January 2025

Peak engagement phase

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The Katy Perry Space Trip meme typically takes a few forms:

1

Duration jokes: Compare the 11-minute flight to something that lasts longer, like a Selena Gomez social media break, a microwave cycle, or a morning commute.

2

Ground-kissing edits: Use the image of Perry on her knees kissing the ground and add a caption about returning from something mundane.

3

Celebrity privilege commentary: Frame the flight as a symbol of wealth disconnect, often pairing it with references to economic hardship or Jeff Bezos's tax rate.

4

Gayle King reaction shots: Screenshots of King looking uncomfortable or unenthused during the flight work as general reaction images.

5

"Send her back" riffs: Remix Wendy's viral tweet format by suggesting other people or things to send to space.

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

The backlash hit Perry's professional life tangibly. The wave of criticism coincided with her Lifetimes Tour, and coverage of the space trip overshadowed tour promotion for weeks. Slate's comparison to the 2020 celebrity "Imagine" video framed the flight as a defining example of celebrity tone-deafness in 2025.

The meme wave also fed into broader debates about space tourism's environmental cost. Critics pointed out that each passenger on a typical suborbital tourism flight produces roughly 75 tonnes of carbon emissions, equivalent to what some small nations emit in a year1. The flight's framing as feminist progress clashed with the reality that Blue Origin's founder had donated to political candidates opposing abortion rights1.

The Wendy's engagement became a case study in brand social media strategy, with the chain gaining significant attention for its refusal to back down. The Kesha-Wendy's-Katy Perry triangle generated its own sub-narrative that kept the memes alive for days after the flight.

The conspiracy theories, while debunked by outlets like Euronews, showed how quickly misinformation could attach itself to a viral celebrity event, with theories about fake hands, wrong hair physics, and Satanic mission patches all gaining traction on X.

Fun Facts

Perry sang Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" during the flight. Internet users joked it was "a travesty" she didn't perform her own single "Woman's World" instead.

The flight lasted 10 minutes and 21 seconds, shorter than most TV commercial breaks during a Super Bowl broadcast1.

A photo used to support the "fake hand" conspiracy theory was actually from a 2017 unmanned Blue Origin test flight that carried a mannequin named Skywalker.

Lily Allen's apology to Perry two weeks after her criticism became its own mini-news cycle, with Allen citing "internalized misogyny" as her motivation for piling on.

The Blue Origin mission patch sparked separate conspiracy theories when users flipped it upside down and claimed it resembled the Satanic figure Baphomet.

Derivatives & Variations

Tweets about celebrity space access during poverty/inflation

A variation of Katy Perry Space Trip

(2025)

Comparisons to other celebrities in space

A variation of Katy Perry Space Trip

(2025)

Space movie/show references applied to the situation

A variation of Katy Perry Space Trip

(2025)

Speculation about what Katy Perry might do in space

A variation of Katy Perry Space Trip

(2025)

Wealth inequality commentary using the space trip as example

A variation of Katy Perry Space Trip

(2025)

Frequently Asked Questions

References (1)

  1. 1
    Everyone Hates Elonencyclopedia

Katy Perry Space Trip

2025Celebrity event / viral backlashdeclining

Also known as: Blue Origin All-Female Space Mission Memes · Katy Perry Blue Origin Memes

Katy Perry Space Trip refers to the massive wave of memes, jokes, and online backlash that followed pop singer Katy Perry's participation in the Blue Origin NS-31 suborbital space flight on April 14, 2025. The 11-minute flight, billed as the first all-female crew in space since 1963, drew ridicule from celebrities, brands, and millions of social media users who mocked the trip's brevity, Perry's theatrical ground-kissing upon landing, and what critics called tone-deaf celebrity privilege during a time of economic anxiety.

katy perry memes space tourism memes celebrity backlash memes pop star memes scandal memes

Overview

On April 14, 2025, Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket launched mission NS-31, carrying an all-female crew that included Katy Perry, CBS anchor Gayle King, Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos's fiancée Lauren Sánchez, former NASA engineer Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, and film producer Kerianne Flynn1. The flight lasted 10 minutes and 21 seconds, reaching suborbital space before returning to the launch site in West Texas1.

The internet's response was immediate and brutal. Within hours, the flight became one of 2025's most memed events, with jokes targeting everything from the comically short duration to Perry kissing the ground after landing. Celebrity critics piled on, Wendy's fast food chain joined the roast, and conspiracy theorists claimed the whole thing was faked. Slate compared the mission to the widely mocked 2020 celebrity "Imagine" sing-along video.

The memes began forming in real time on April 14, 2025, as the Blue Origin NS-31 flight was broadcast live. The mission had been organized by Lauren Sánchez and promoted as a historic all-female spaceflight, the first since cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova's solo mission in 19631. Perry documented the experience on social media, including singing Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" during the flight.

The backlash ignited on Twitter/X almost immediately after splashdown. Model Emily Ratajkowski posted that she was "disgusted," writing: "Saying that you care about Mother Earth and it's about Mother Earth, and you're going up in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that's singlehandedly destroying the planet". Olivia Wilde shared a meme of Perry exiting the spacecraft captioned "Getting off a commercial flight in 2025," while also saying she was "loving the memes".

The moment that crystallized the meme wave came when Perry dropped to her knees and kissed the ground after landing. That image spread across every platform within minutes.

Origin & Background

Platform
Twitter/X (initial backlash), TikTok and Instagram (meme spread)
Creator
Unknown
Date
2025

The memes began forming in real time on April 14, 2025, as the Blue Origin NS-31 flight was broadcast live. The mission had been organized by Lauren Sánchez and promoted as a historic all-female spaceflight, the first since cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova's solo mission in 19631. Perry documented the experience on social media, including singing Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" during the flight.

The backlash ignited on Twitter/X almost immediately after splashdown. Model Emily Ratajkowski posted that she was "disgusted," writing: "Saying that you care about Mother Earth and it's about Mother Earth, and you're going up in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that's singlehandedly destroying the planet". Olivia Wilde shared a meme of Perry exiting the spacecraft captioned "Getting off a commercial flight in 2025," while also saying she was "loving the memes".

The moment that crystallized the meme wave came when Perry dropped to her knees and kissed the ground after landing. That image spread across every platform within minutes.

How It Spread

The first major brand to jump in was Wendy's. Under a Pop Crave post celebrating Perry's return, the fast food chain's X account wrote: "Can we send her back". Wendy's also riffed on Perry's hit song with a twist on "I Kissed a Girl" after she kissed the ground. When called out, Wendy's refused to apologize.

Kesha, Perry's longtime rival due to the Dr. Luke legal dispute, posted a selfie on X wearing sunglasses and sipping from a Wendy's cup. The post was widely interpreted as a pointed endorsement of the roast.

Comedian Caitlin Peluffo posted a viral video satirizing Perry and Sánchez that racked up massive engagement. One tweet joking that Gayle King revealed Perry "sang in space" and quipping "no wonder they came back so quickly" pulled over 400,000 likes in two days.

Other celebrities who publicly criticized the flight included Lily Allen, who called it "out of touch" and slammed sending Perry to space "for absolutely no fucking reason". Amy Schumer and Olivia Munn also posted critical commentary. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy disputed the crew's astronaut title, stating they did not meet FAA criteria because they had not demonstrated "activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety".

By April 16, conspiracy theories were already spreading. Users on X pointed to Perry's hair "floating the wrong direction," a capsule door that appeared to open before Bezos opened the hatch, and the lack of re-entry burn marks on the capsule. The "fake hand" theory gained traction when a photo circulated showing what appeared to be a mannequin hand inside a Blue Origin capsule, though the image was actually from a 2017 unmanned test flight.

In the UK, the activist group Everyone Hates Elon installed protest posters near Amazon's headquarters in Shoreditch reading "If you can afford to send Katy Perry to space, you can afford to pay more taxes" and near an Amazon Fresh store in Angel with posters captioned "Our tax avoidance is out of this world, just ask Katy Perry".

On April 23, Perry addressed the criticism during her Lifetimes Tour in Mexico City, asking the crowd "Has anyone ever called your dreams crazy?". She later wrote in a social media comment that she felt "battered and bruised" but was "looking to the light". Reports surfaced that Perry didn't regret going to space but did regret "making a public spectacle out of it". Lily Allen later apologized on her Miss Me? podcast on April 28, saying "There was actually no need for me to bring her name into it, and it was my own internalized misogyny".

Platforms

Twitter/XTikTokInstagram

Timeline

2025-01-01

Katy Perry Space Trip first appeared on Twitter/TikTok

December 2024

Initial news or speculation about Katy Perry space trip

February 2025

Decline as novelty wears off

January 2025

Memes rapidly spread online

January 2025

Peak engagement phase

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The Katy Perry Space Trip meme typically takes a few forms:

1

Duration jokes: Compare the 11-minute flight to something that lasts longer, like a Selena Gomez social media break, a microwave cycle, or a morning commute.

2

Ground-kissing edits: Use the image of Perry on her knees kissing the ground and add a caption about returning from something mundane.

3

Celebrity privilege commentary: Frame the flight as a symbol of wealth disconnect, often pairing it with references to economic hardship or Jeff Bezos's tax rate.

4

Gayle King reaction shots: Screenshots of King looking uncomfortable or unenthused during the flight work as general reaction images.

5

"Send her back" riffs: Remix Wendy's viral tweet format by suggesting other people or things to send to space.

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

The backlash hit Perry's professional life tangibly. The wave of criticism coincided with her Lifetimes Tour, and coverage of the space trip overshadowed tour promotion for weeks. Slate's comparison to the 2020 celebrity "Imagine" video framed the flight as a defining example of celebrity tone-deafness in 2025.

The meme wave also fed into broader debates about space tourism's environmental cost. Critics pointed out that each passenger on a typical suborbital tourism flight produces roughly 75 tonnes of carbon emissions, equivalent to what some small nations emit in a year1. The flight's framing as feminist progress clashed with the reality that Blue Origin's founder had donated to political candidates opposing abortion rights1.

The Wendy's engagement became a case study in brand social media strategy, with the chain gaining significant attention for its refusal to back down. The Kesha-Wendy's-Katy Perry triangle generated its own sub-narrative that kept the memes alive for days after the flight.

The conspiracy theories, while debunked by outlets like Euronews, showed how quickly misinformation could attach itself to a viral celebrity event, with theories about fake hands, wrong hair physics, and Satanic mission patches all gaining traction on X.

Fun Facts

Perry sang Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" during the flight. Internet users joked it was "a travesty" she didn't perform her own single "Woman's World" instead.

The flight lasted 10 minutes and 21 seconds, shorter than most TV commercial breaks during a Super Bowl broadcast1.

A photo used to support the "fake hand" conspiracy theory was actually from a 2017 unmanned Blue Origin test flight that carried a mannequin named Skywalker.

Lily Allen's apology to Perry two weeks after her criticism became its own mini-news cycle, with Allen citing "internalized misogyny" as her motivation for piling on.

The Blue Origin mission patch sparked separate conspiracy theories when users flipped it upside down and claimed it resembled the Satanic figure Baphomet.

Derivatives & Variations

Tweets about celebrity space access during poverty/inflation

A variation of Katy Perry Space Trip

(2025)

Comparisons to other celebrities in space

A variation of Katy Perry Space Trip

(2025)

Space movie/show references applied to the situation

A variation of Katy Perry Space Trip

(2025)

Speculation about what Katy Perry might do in space

A variation of Katy Perry Space Trip

(2025)

Wealth inequality commentary using the space trip as example

A variation of Katy Perry Space Trip

(2025)

Frequently Asked Questions

References (1)

  1. 1
    Everyone Hates Elonencyclopedia