The Farmer’s Almanac I buy every December has not been opened since, and I’ll admit there’s nothing in that book I couldn’t find faster on my phone. But there it sits with its planting guides and planetary positions, short stories and anecdotes, a decorative but dusty bit of nostalgia.
My grandfather would chuckle when people spoke of planting on the moon and go on to say that he preferred to plant his crops in the ground. Some people swear planting by the signs makes all the difference, and I don’t know that they’re wrong, but as a planter with a full-time job away from the farm, I know his comment acknowledged the expedience and pragmatism of farm life. You plant when you have the time, when the weather allows, when any one of a hundred other chores isn’t demanding immediate attention.
The memory of his comments came to me as I glanced at the recent celebrity space hop on Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft. It was a quintessential example of the disconnect between “the stars,” the contrived ones, not the ones space flight is attempting to reach—and the rest of humanity grounded in the day-to-day concerns of survival.
If space flight was a rodeo to raise awareness of women leading us into a hopeful future, this one was all hat and no horse. The passengers barely broke the Kármán line (the internationally recognized boundary of space); something the X-15 did numerous times beginning in 1963. No, Katy, you’re not an astronaut.
Indeed, much of the response to the event has been negative, aside from the usual display of celebrities talking amongst themselves about each other. Studies suggest that skepticism toward celebrity culture is growing among the general public. The spell has been broken, particularly as more famous names run their brands aground on the rocky shores of politics.
Overlooked by the self-replicating autophagic echo chamber that never stops talking, there were, in fact, two accomplished women on the flight who are more than worthy of mention. Amanda Nguyen is a bioastronautics research scientist who has worked on space medicine and astronaut health. Aisha Bowe is a former NASA rocket scientist and aerospace engineer. You can probably guess which of the six women on the flight I would prefer my own daughter to consider when mapping her future.
Our ticket to the stars will not be achieved by people wearing form-fitting outfits designed by Monse. An opportunity was overlooked in the infotainment reaction to the New Shepard flight. We stared straight through it without noticing. A profound and definitive message of hope could have been achieved by focusing on the women who helped build the science and technology which made that flight possible. Or how about an all-female crew additionally composed of mothers, teachers, nurses, public servants, and other women filling the host of essential roles necessary for maintaining the foundations of our society? Unfortunately, only celebrities and CEOs can afford the fare, and where is the hope in that?
Outside The Box 