DON SURBER: Did Katy Perry just kill feminism? “The 6 celebrities followed Freedom 7’s course? So what? You can retrace the route of the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria but that doesn’t make you Christopher Columbus.”

The Internet mockery has been extreme:

But efforts at stolen astronaut glamour notwithstanding, the real achievement is in fact that space travel has progressed to the point where you don’t have to be Alan Shepherd or John Glenn to fly in space: You can just be a passenger. Kind of like it’s a sign that air travel has advanced that you don’t have to be Charles Lindbergh to fly across the Atlantic.

These women flew in space because they’re famous. Alan Shepherd was famous because he flew in space. It’s not the same, but that’s okay.