Former NASA scientist wrestles with Blue Origin backlash

Post Reports

The Washington Post

Daily News, Politics, News

4.4 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today we’re going to listen to a conversation between our colleague Lizza Dwoskin and her friend Aisha Bowe, an aerospace engineer who was on the all-female Blue Origin flight that went to space in April. It’s about navigating what happens when a dream comes true — and then sparks public outrage. Blue Origin, the space company, is owned by Jeff Bezos. He also owns The Washington Post and is the co-founder of Amazon.

Some of the other crew members were celebrities, including pop star Katy Perry and broadcast journalist Gayle King.The flight became a flash point for anger from the political left directed at billionaires associated with the Trump administration. Bezos was among the tech moguls who attended Donald Trump’s second inauguration.

Now that some time has passed, Aisha was ready to sit down and talk about what this has all been like for her.

Today’s show was edited by Renita Jablonski, Maggie Penman and James Graff. It was produced and mixed by Ted Muldoon.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Post Reports Weekend. I'm Elahe Izadi.
0:06.2	Today, we're going to listen to a conversation between a colleague here at The Post and one of her friends.
0:12.5	It's about navigating what happens when a dream comes true, and then sparks public outrage.
0:20.4	My colleague's friend was part of the Blue Origin flight into space last month.
0:25.3	P-minus 10, 9.
0:27.9	You've probably seen video clips or memes, or the critical columns and social media posts.
0:34.2	Two, one, eight-o-o-oh.
0:39.2	The moon! You guys, I will have to tell you, look at the moon.
0:43.5	Take up space!
0:49.1	The flight took 11 minutes.
0:51.8	For half that time, the crew was above the Carmen line. That's the boundary about
0:56.9	62 miles above the Earth's surface. It's considered the line between the Earth's atmosphere and space.
1:04.9	The crew was made up of six women. This was the first all-female crew since 1963. But some of those women were celebrities.
1:14.4	The pop star, Katie Perry, the broadcast journalist, Gail King. Lauren Sanchez was the trip's leader.
1:21.8	She's a former broadcaster and the fiancé of Jeff Bezos. Bezos owns Blue Origin, the private space company that organized the trip.
1:30.9	He also owns the Washington Post and is the co-founder of Amazon.
1:34.9	The crew also included an independent film producer, Carrie Ann Flynn, Amanda Wynn, an astronaut.
1:41.4	And then there was a former NASA aerospace engineer. My colleague,
1:46.2	Lizzie Dwaskin, first saw the whole group in a photo announcing the crew. It was an L magazine.
1:52.2	Everyone was in black, a leather wrap dress on Gail King, Katie Perry in a pantsuit,
1:58.8	and then I saw, whoa, there's my friend Aisha Beau.
2:05.7	Lizzie covers Silicon Valley for The Post. She and Aisha have known each other for almost a decade.
	...

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