Whatever you think of the recent Blue Origin flight w/ Katy Perry, the company kicks Virgin Galactic’s a**

Whatever your take on the recent flight by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin (with Katy Perry and an all-female crew), one thing that stuck out was that the flight took just 11 minutes and passed Kármán line, which at 62 miles above sea level is considered to be the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space.

Whether you think that is an impressive feat for the crew or not it is worth noting that Virgin Galactic (which New Mexico taxpayers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to fund) takes 2.5 hours to achieve the same altitude. That’s because of the “mothership” and “junior” ship design. Virgin Galactic’s stock price has dropped a whopping 58% in 2025.

If/when manned spaceflight trips like those taken by Katy Perry et al ever DO become popular and available for the non super-rich are people going to choose the 2.5 hour trip from the New Mexico desert or an 11 minute shot right into space from West Texas. Notably Blue Origin is (obviously) still launching flights while Virgin Galactic flights have been on hiatus for almost a year as they attempt to come up with a spacecraft that works AND is profitable.