A Vietnamese-American astronaut has opened up about her depression after she received 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 space flight, which also included pop star Katy Perry and Lauren Sánchez, the journalist and wife of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, among its crew.
The much-derided flight was criticised by some for its expense 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 fellow crew member Gayle King – a US news anchor – called to check in on her in the days following the flight, “I told her my depression might last for years”.
She described the news coverage and social media reaction that followed the trip as an “onslaught no human brain has evolved to endure”.
“I did not leave Texas for a week, unable to get out of bed. A month later, when a senior staff at Blue [Origin] called me, I had to hang up on him because I could not speak through my tears.”
Ms Nyugen, who has worked as a scientist researching women’s health and conducted numerous experiments during the Blue Origin flight, said everything she “had worked for – as a scientist, my women’s health research, the years I had trained for this moment, the experiments I operated in space, the history that was being made as the Vietnamese woman astronaut, on the 50th anniversary of the US-Vietnam war, as the child of boat refugees, the promise I kept to my survivor self – was buried under an avalanche of misogyny”.
Ms Nguyen is most recognised for her work protecting the civil rights of sexual assault survivors.
She put her own ambition to become an astronaut on hold after being raped while at university and pursuing a years-long campaign for justice, she told the Guardian in an interview in March.
Eight months on from realising her dream, she said the “fog of grief has started to lift”, and thanked those who have followed her and sent her good wishes. “You all saved me”, she said.
She added that despite the backlash, “there has been overwhelming good that has come out of [the flight]”, listing the media attention brought to her women’s health research and opportunities to meet world leaders in relation to her advocacy work.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket lifted off from its Texas launch site in April and took the six-woman crew on an 11-minute flight which crossed the internationally recognised boundary of space.
The crew also included aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe and film producer Kerianne Flynn.
The New Shepard rocket does not require 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.