Fact Check: Was Katy Perry's Widely Mocked Blue Origins Trip a Hoax?
There were no shortage of oddities from pop star Katy Perry’s trip into space aboard a Blue Origin craft with an all-female crew. But did the oddities go so far as outright fakery?
For those of you who missed the aerospace pseudo-event of 2025, Perry — a 40-year-old pop singer best known for tracks like “California Gurls” and “Roar” — became an “astronaut” of sorts by taking part in a roughly 10 minute flight above the Kármán line.
That’s the line that demarcates the atmosphere from outer space 62 miles above ground level, although they were only briefly above it and experienced a mere few minutes of weightlessness during the April 14 flight on board the New Shepard rocket.
There’s some controversy over whether the women were astronauts — none were involved in piloting the remotely controlled craft nor did useful scientific research, which is what earns one that label — or whether the flight was meaningful at all, but it did give us viral footage like this from outer space …
first video of katy perry floating in space pic.twitter.com/zqytfDvS99
— 2000s (@PopCulture2000s) April 14, 2025
… as well as viral footage like this from when Perry returned to earth (at least physically):
Katy Perry gave credit to the “divine feminine” after her 11-min space trip. “Divine feminine” is a term that elevates women above men, glorifies goddesses, and points people to new age, Wicca, and witchcraft. Please pray for Katie & her fans. All glory to God, not paganism! pic.twitter.com/woSzo0SEZc
— Doreen Virtue (@DoreenVirtue) April 16, 2025
However, another viral trend took off in the immediate aftermath of the Blue Origin flight: claims that it never actually took place, at least as planned.
Now, conspiracy theories regarding the legitimacy of space flight have been around since time immemorial, especially regarding the moon landing.
This time, however, the alleged evidence that it was a fakery was the lack of re-entry burn marks on the crew craft itself.
Something is definitely wrong with the Blue Origin “Space Flight”… that Katy Perry was on
Social media users are asking, where are the re-entry burn marks? And why does that look like a fake hand?
lol this world is so crazy https://t.co/8r800Rlmwt pic.twitter.com/Tw7mSfKfDo
— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) April 16, 2025
No burn marks on reentry 🤣🤣 come on now ? what a joke 🤣 it’s as white as snow 🤣 pic.twitter.com/ailuU5eCu7
— JoeM (@Joe46523526Joe) April 17, 2025
Indeed, one of the reasons space flight is so difficult is because of the intense heat on re-entry. Craft need significant heat-dissipating shielding to withstand the fiery temperatures created by the friction from the air the craft is compressing as it moves from the vacuum of space to earth’s atmosphere at high speed.
Failure of heat shielding, after all, was responsible for the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, which led to the deaths of the seven astronauts on board and a complete breakup of STS-107.
Some users who were skeptical space travel exists at all marked it up to people forgetting to “paint” the marks on. Others, who felt that the Blue Origin mission in particular was a fake, pointed to vehicles like the SpaceX Dragon capsule after re-entry and what it looked like:
This is the dragon after reentry burn.
“Re-entry burn marks on a spacecraft after landing are a result of the intense heat generated as the craft plunges through the Earth’s atmosphere. This heat is caused by the compression of the air ahead of the spacecraft, which increases… pic.twitter.com/m5iMXsJgB1— The Gal (@giveu2tictacs) April 15, 2025
Furthermore, as user @MJTruthUltra pointed out, there looked to be a fake hand in the photographs.
“According to the conspiracy, the Blue Origin mission was actually produced in a film studio on Earth and CGI was used to create the appearance of a rocket launch,” the U.K.’s Daily Mail noted.
There was also another sign of “definitive proof” that this was faked: The fact the door to the craft was opened before Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos opened it up:
PAY CLOSE ATTENTION ⚠️ pic.twitter.com/A7TOvoo7Xj
— Matt Wallace (@MattWallace888) April 16, 2025
So, is there any truth to these rumors? While it makes for some juicy gossip online — and makes a much-mocked trip look even sillier — the fact is that none of these theories hold water.
First, the most problematic, the lack of burn marks. Yes, the craft is clean as can be — but, as previously mentioned, it very barely made it above the Kármán line. That meant there was almost no friction from the atmosphere on the way back down — and no friction, no burn marks.
But what about the mannequin hand? Well, as it turns out, that photo isn’t from the April 14 flight, but from the test flight of the New Shepard Capsule in 2017 — eight years ago.
Suffice it to say, it’s not really good form to send real humans up to test out space tourist craft, particularly if there turns out to be a problem. (Death, as it turns out, is pretty bad PR.)
Finally, the matter of the door: The reason for this is unclear, but the most likely explanation? Someone accidentally opened it early, before Jeff Bezos got his photo op. Considering he’s the guy behind the shindig, it’s probably worth it to ensure there’s a do-over for the cameras — although it didn’t work out as planned.
While the flight was nowhere near as historic as people wanted to believe it was, there’s ample evidence that it happened — questions about the condition of the craft notwithstanding. We rate these claims as false.
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