A Vietnamese-American astronaut has spoken of her depression after experiencing a “tsunami of harassment” following the first all-female space trip since 1963 earlier this year.
Amanda Nguyen – a 34-year-old scientist and civil rights activist – was part of the 11-minute Blue Origin spaceflight, which also included pop star Katy Perry and Lauren Sánchez, the journalist and wife of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, among its crew.
This much-derided flight has been criticized by some for its cost and environmental impact.
Speaking about the experience, Ms Nguyen – who became the first Vietnamese woman to go to space – said the backlash saw her dreams buried under “an avalanche of misogyny”.
In a statement posted on Instagram, Ms Nguyen said that when Gayle King, another crew member – an American news anchor – called to check on her in the days after the flight, “I told her my depression could last for years”.
She described the media coverage and social media reaction that followed the trip as an “attack that no human brain evolved to endure.”
“I didn’t leave Texas for a week, unable to get out of bed. A month later, when a senior executive at Blue [Origin] called me, I had to hang up because I couldn’t speak through my tears. »
Ms. Nyugen, who worked as a scientist in women’s health research and conducted numerous experiments during the Blue Origin flight, said that everything she “had worked for — as a scientist, my research in women’s health, the formative years for this moment, the experiments I conducted in space, the history being made as a Vietnamese female astronaut, on the 50th anniversary of the U.S.-Vietnam War, as a child of boat refugees, the promise I kept to my surviving self – has been buried under an avalanche of misogyny.”
Ms. Nguyen is best known for her work to protect the civil rights of sexual assault survivors.
She put aside her own ambition to become an astronaut after being raped while at university and after leading a years-long campaign for justice, she told the Guardian in an interview in March.
Eight months after realizing her dream, she said “the fog of grief has begun to lift” and thanked those who followed her and sent her well wishes. “You all saved me,” she said.
She added that despite the negative reactions, “considerable benefits have emerged from [the flight]”, listing the media attention given to her research on women’s health and opportunities to meet with world leaders as part of her advocacy work.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket blasted off from its Texas launch site in April and took the crew of six women on an 11-minute flight that crossed the internationally recognized boundary of space.
The crew also included aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe and film producer Kerianne Flynn.
The New Shepard rocket requires no human operation and is fully automated.
Blue Origin is a private space company founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the billionaire entrepreneur who also started Amazon.
