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Image: Blue Origin, via BBC
Amanda Nguyen, a bioastronautics research scientist and civil rights advocate, has opened up about the massive online backlash to her Blue Origin spaceflight in April 2025. She revealed that the trolling took a severe emotional toll on her mental health, pushing her into depression and overshadowing what she hoped would be a historic achievement.
The Blue Origin NS-31 mission lasted roughly 11 minutes. Along with Nguyen, the crew included journalist Gayle King, pop star Katy Perry, media executive Lauren Sanchez, aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe, and film producer Kerianne Flynn.
Although the trip was widely promoted as empowering and symbolic, especially for female representation in space, critics on social media and elsewhere called it wasteful and elitist, given the flight’s cost and environmental impact.
Some observers also mocked the celebrity elements of the mission, questioning the seriousness of its scientific value.
In a post on Instagram, Nguyen shared that she faced what she called an “avalanche of misogyny” and harassment online, so intense that at one point she could not leave her bed for a week and struggled to speak without crying.
Nguyen shared that she could not leave Texas for a while because of the questions over the severe environmental impact, the flight’s cost, and celebrity involvement without professional supervision.
Aftermath
Despite the backlash, Nguyen said the spaceflight helped draw more attention to her long-term work in women’s health research and her support for rape survivors, causes that are deeply personal to her.
She added that despite the hatred, "there has been overwhelming good that has come out of [the flight]", listing the media attention brought to her women's health research and opportunities to meet world leaders in relation to her advocacy work.
Nguyen’s experience has also sparked a larger conversation about how social media outrage and public opinion can overshadow real scientific work, especially when science mixes with celebrity culture.