Nigeria, April 15 -- Indulgent, vain and profligate, the all-female venture into space on the self-piloted New Shepard (NS-31) operated by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin was space capitalism and celebrity shallowness on full show, masquerading as profound, moving and useful.

The crew consisted of bioastronautics research scientist and civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King, pop entertainer Katy Perry, film producer Kerianne Flynn, former NASA scientist and entrepreneur Aisha Bowe and Lauren Sanchez, fiancee of Jeff Bezos. The journey took 11 minutes and reached the Karman line at approximately 96 kilometres above the Earth.

Blue Origin had advertised the enterprise as an incentive to draw girls to pursue careers i...