“I felt like collateral damage": Amanda Nguyen talks about the “avalanche of misogyny” after she went to space on the Blue Origin flight

Amanda Nguyen has recently opened up about the alleged harassment she faced after becoming the first Vietnamese woman to go to space. The commercial astronaut and civil rights activist labelled herself "collateral damage," claiming that she was unable to get out of bed because of depression following the expedition.

For the unversed, Nguyen was part of the Blue Origin NS-31 sub-orbital spaceflight that launched into space on April 14, 2025. The expedition featured A-listers such as Jeff Bezos' wife, Lauren Sanchez, Aisha Bowe, Gayle King, Katy Perry, and Kerianne Flynn. It lasted for about 10 minutes and 21 seconds.

Despite the historical significance, the flight received severe backlash for its environmental impact and purpose. On December 29, Amanda Nguyen opened up about the same and its impact on her mental health via a lengthy Instagram post. According to Nguyen, the criticism following the Blue Origin flight had initially made her feel that her "depression" would "last for years."

"Everything I 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 first 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 - that dreams are worth fighting for, especially when we've deferred them to fight for rights were buried under an avalanche of misogyny," Amanda Nguyen wrote.

Elaborating further on the huge media attention received by the expedition, she continued:

"It amounted to billions of hostile impressions - an onslaught no human brain has evolved to endure. I felt like collateral damage, my moment of justice mutilated. I did not leave Texas for a week, unable to get out of bed. A month later, when a senior staff at Blue called me, I had to hang up on him because I could not speak through my tears."

Amanda Nguyen ended her note with a token of appreciation for her friends and the people who helped her power through her depression. She also included a diary entry in her Instagram post containing the line:

"I'm happy to report the depression has lifted."

The post has already garnered over 11k likes on Instagram, with several netizens sharing words of encouragement in the comments section.

Read More: "Well, they weren't flying the thing": Ben Shapiro reacts as Katy Perry and five others become part of Blue Origin's first "all-female" space mission

Read More: "It’s nice seeing some healthy competition"- Internet reacts as Elon Musk congratulates Jeff Bezos on launching Blue Origin rocket into orbit

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"I was like a dried-up leaf": When Amanda Nguyen opened up about her sexual assault

Amanda Nguyen at TIME Women Of The Year Leadership Forum - Source: Getty (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images for TIME)

Amanda Nguyen opened up about her sexual assault and the events that followed during an interview with The Guardian (published on March 5, 2025). The Nobel Peace Prize nominee was allegedly raped at a frat party during her days as a Harvard student in 2013.

In her interview, Nguyen recalled being informed about the nuances of filing charges against her assaulter. She was told that the conviction rate was 1% and that prosecution would take around two to three years.

“The life had gone out of me. I felt like a skeleton of that vivacious, happy young student. I was like a dried-up leaf and would never get back to being green and young. But I could transform into something else. It could become an ignition,” she explained.

Nguyen went on to form 'Rise' with other survivors of sexual violence to reform laws associated with sexual violence in the country. The volunteers created the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights, which was a bill to preserve rape kits of assault survivors until the end of the statute of limitations. It was made into a law by former President Barack Obama in October 2016.

In her recent Instagram post about the onslaught following the Blue Origin flight, Amanda Nguyen wrote about her "survivor self" that had helped her fight through the depression.

“In my moments of deep grief this year, I reached back out to a familiar place, to her – my survivor self – who found the strength to fight. How horrible that I need to deploy that skill once again. In truth, I wanted to leave her behind, tired of the continued sacrifice," she wrote.

For her efforts, Amanda Nguyen was one of TIME's Women of the Year in 2022 and was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019.

Read More: "Let's celebrate female astronauts": Joe Rogan trolls Katy Perry's Blue Origin trip, says her bringing a daisy to space was "super important"

Read More: "Why didn't we put a Kardashian on that ship?" Zack Peter reacts to Gayle King's claims that Blue Origin wants to transfer Earth's "waste" to space

Edited by Rajarsi Chakraborty