There's Something Incredibly Sketchy About How They Opened the Hatch on Katy Perry's Rocket

By pretty much any account, Blue Origin's publicity stunt of sending an all-female crew into space was a major flop.

The Jeff Bezos-owned New Shepard capsule spent mere minutes in kinda-sorta-maybe space, giving its extremely wealthy passengers a momentary glimpse of weightlessness — though more in the way a rollercoaster ride causes you to shift out of your seat than in the microgravity of actual orbit (unlike a theme park ride, though, a ticket for the jaunt set passengers like pop star Katy Perry back hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece.)

Adding to the drama, a peculiar moment captured during the live stream had audiences scratching their heads.

As spotted by eagle-eyed netizens, and later confirmed by Snopes, the door to the capsule briefly opened inwards and shut again after it softly landed in the West Texas desert. A female employee can be seen hurrying over to the door in an apparent attempt to tell the occupants to shut it again, around the 1:45:30 mark in the official stream.

A nearby Bezos laughs while gazing through one of the windows. Roughly two minutes later, he purposefully walks up to the door to use a tool to open the capsule and greet his fiancée — even though the door could clearly already be opened. A flurry of activity including countless camera shutters can be heard, suggesting this was a moment constructed for maximum publicity.

Even more strangely, the tool in Bezos' hand appeared to temporarily make contact with the door, but didn't seem to actually engage with any locking mechanism.

"Oops, she didn't really close it again!" a laughing Bezos can be heard saying.

The moment raised plenty of questions. Why did Bezos have to use a tool to open the door if the hatch could've easily been opened from the inside? Just how much of the launch was a silly, rehearsed publicity stunt designed for everybody to fall in love with their favorite billionaires again?

A more forgiving interpretation of the moment could indicate that Blue Origin crew members — and not the capsule's passengers — were simply following protocol, forcing the crew to wait until they got the all-clear.

Did the passengers, who spent a mere couple of days in preparation for the stunt, screw up the proceedings by opening the latch too soon?

Naturally, the internet, which already came out in full force to mock the entire charade, had a field day.

"Did anyone catch them prematurely opening the door and clearly being told to close it?" one user on TikTok wrote. "AND then Jeff Bezos opens it with a tool?"

Of course, conspiracy theories latched onto the opportunity to argue that the New Shepard launch was entirely faked — despite ample evidence suggesting the rocket did indeed reach the Kármán line, the internationally agreed-upon edge of space.

But considering the media circus surrounding the launch, which was haphazardly played up as a groundbreaking moment in the history of women in space exploration, there's a good chance Blue Origin was simply trying to ensure it milked every photo opp available.

There's already been plenty of speculation about which one-percenter will dare to ride Bezos' rocket next — though considering how this week's launch played out, maybe publicists will think twice before trying to get their client on board.

More on the launch: Zillionaire Girlbosses Astonished by Backlash to Their Frivolous Trip to Space