Astronaut and civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen has spoken out about the severe depression she suffered after facing a torrent of online abuse and criticism following her historic journey to space with Blue Origin.
The Historic Flight and Immediate Backlash
On 14 April 2025, Nguyen, alongside pop icon Katy Perry, broadcast journalist Gayle King, and Lauren Sánchez, wife of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, launched from Launch Site One in Van Horn, Texas. The all-female crew completed a short, 11-minute mission into orbit, making Nguyen the first Vietnamese woman to travel to space.
However, the landmark flight was swiftly met with significant public criticism. Detractors focused on the environmental impact of such private space tourism and questioned the purpose and resource allocation of the mission. For Nguyen, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and bioastronautics research scientist, the professional triumph of realising a lifelong dream was quickly overshadowed.
'An Avalanche of Misogyny' and Collapse into Depression
In a candid and lengthy statement shared on Instagram, Nguyen described facing a "tsunami of harassment." She said her achievements were "buried under an avalanche of misogyny" and that the unprecedented scale of global news coverage meant even a small fraction of negative reaction became overwhelming.
"It amounted to billions of hostile impressions," she wrote, "an onslaught no human brain has evolved to endure." The fallout was devastating on a personal level. Nguyen revealed she was unable to leave her bed or her Texas location for a week after the flight. When Gayle King called to check on her, Nguyen confessed her depression "might last for years."
A month later, a call from a senior Blue Origin staff member had to be cut short because she was crying too hard to speak. The experience made her feel like "collateral damage" and mutilated her "moment of justice," forcing her to draw upon the resilience she had built as a survivor of sexual assault.
Finding Light and a Powerful Legacy
Now, eight months after the flight, Nguyen says the "fog of grief has started to lift." She expressed profound gratitude for the support from her community and from Vietnam, the homeland her parents fled as refugees after the fall of Saigon.
She highlighted the powerful symbolism of her journey: "When Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon, bombs rained down on Vietnam. This year, when my boat refugee family looked at the sky, instead of bombs they saw the first Vietnamese woman in space. We came on boats, and now we’re on spaceships."
Despite the pain, Nguyen acknowledges positive outcomes, including increased attention for her women's health research and advocacy for rape survivors. She concluded her post with hope, stating she can now tell Gayle King the depression won't take years, and shared a childhood photo captioned "For her," dedicating her recovery to her younger self.
