The year is 1963. The Soviet Union, once a feudal backwater, has become an advanced country with 68 million high school graduates, compared to 10 million just five decades ago.

Engineers and highly educated specialists are everywhere. Their collective efforts launched the first man into space back in 1961, outpacing the rest of the world and giving hope to a country still recovering from the devastation of World War II.

Now, those same engineers are sending the first woman into space, Valentina Tereshkova — whose three days in orbit were more than the combined space-time of every American at that point put together, although she would never let you know it.

"The only way forward in space travel is for everyone to work together," she recalled in an interview decades after the historic flight.

Now fast forward 62 years. It's 2025, the USSR is distant history, and People magazine is demanding an apology from the burger chain Wendy's for sass-talking pop star Katy Perry's trip aboard a billionaire's private space capsule. Welcome to the 21st century.

In case you haven't heard, Perry recently took a trek aboard Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin space capsule, joining celebrity girl bosses Gayle King, Kerianne Flynn, Amanda Nguyen, Aisha Bower, and Bezos' fiancée Lauren Sánchez. With the possible exception of Nguyen, each passenger is fabulously wealthy. Tickets to ride aren't cheap — the first seat aboard sold for a cool $28 million.

The spectacle drew quite a bit of backlash online, with critics panning private space travel in general, as well as the crew's quasi-feminist platitudes, as frivolous capitalism run amok. Adding fuel to the fire was Wendy's comms team, who asked "can we send her back?" in response to a post declaring that "Katy Perry has returned from space."

According to People, a source "close to the situation" feels that Wendy's posts on X-formerly-Twitter went too far. "Wendy’s didn’t make a joke — they made a choice," scolded the "source," who's definitely not Perry's publicist. "Their recent posts on X aimed at Katy Perry were not only disrespectful, but blatantly inappropriate."

The source said that Wendy's five-word joke was irresponsible, adding that "this was a billion-dollar brand using its platform to publicly demean a woman." And hey, fair enough — Wendy's isn't exactly vox populi either.

"Wendy’s should ‘do the right thing’... apologize and do better in the future," the source seethed.

"We always bring a little spice to our socials, but Wendy’s has a ton of respect for Katy Perry and her out-of-this-world-talent," the fast food chain told People. Whether that non-apology will satisfy People's mystery source remains to be seen.

If the Blue Origin extravaganza offers any inspiration, it's that the future of space travel might once again be shaped by the collective will of a nation — not the fortunes of a few billionaires. After all, the journey began 62 years ago with a true feminist trailblazer: Valentina Tereshkova.

More on Katy Perry's Space Flight: Katy Perry Boasts About Ridiculous Rocket Launch While NASA Is Scrubbing History of Women in Space


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