Astronaut reveals depression after an 'avalanche of misogyny' following Blue Origin all-female space flight
Amanda Nguyen, 34, has opened up about the depression she felt amid the backlash to her April space flight.
The world's first female Vietnamese astronaut has opened up about the depression she felt as she experienced an 'avalanche of misogyny' following her trip to space.
Amanda Nguyen, 34, was onboard Blue Origin's first all-female space flight in April, along with singer Katy Perry, Gayle King, and Jeff Bezos' wife Lauren Sanchez, as well as NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe and film producer Kerianne Flynn.
During the 11-minute voyage, they reached an altitude of 66.5 miles, crossing the Karman Line and officially entering space.
But the flight soon received backlash for its jaw-dropping price tag, its questionable environmental impact, and the bizarre and dramatic antics of its six-person crew after they touched down on Earth's soil.
Some online even claimed that the mission took place entirely inside a film studio, with the crew 'floating' in tanks of water, saying it had 'the worst CGI any of these fake space agencies has produced.'
Amid the fallout, Nguyen said she went into a deep depression that she recalled telling Gayle King 'might last for years.'
She wrote in a lengthy statement posted to Instagram on Sunday that everything she had worked for as a scientist who researched women's health and conducted experiments in space, training for years to travel beyond Earth's atmosphere 'were buried under an avalanche of misogyny.'
The 'volume of coverage' over the flight was 'unprecedented,' Nguyen continued, so that even a 'small fraction of negativity becomes staggering.'
Amanda Nguyen, 34, has opened up about the depression she felt amid the backlash to her April space flight
Nguyen (second from left) was onboard Blue Origin's first all-female space flight in April, along with singer Katy Perry, Gayle King, and Jeff Bezos' wife Lauren Sanchez, as well as NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe and film producer Kerianne Flynn
'It amounted to billions of hostile impressions - an onslaught no human brain has evolved to endure,' Nguyen said.
'I felt like collateral damage, my moment of justice mutilated.'
She was unable to leave Texas for a week after the flight, as she struggled to get out of bed.
Even one month later, Nguyen said, she struggled to 'speak through my tears.'