Above, Miss Lauren Sánchez (circled) in the 1980s.
Whilst my critics will compare the title of today’s post as cringing as Stasi Starmer sucking up to President Trump, it is civil and good manners to wish any couple getting marriage all the best.
The reason I have decided to blog about these nuptials stems from digesting reports about the protests in-re the extravagance of the wedding from the denizens of Venice. Naturally, given the identity of the groom the popular and tabloid press are all over this story and my readers will question why I have decided to comment upon the nuptials as well.
Well, it stemmed from me Googling the name “Lauren Sánchez” as quite frankly, I had not heard of the lady. I had of course heard of Mr Bezos!
Reading the Wikipedia entry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauren_S%C3%A1nchez) about Miss Sánchez, I do not have a high opinion about the coverage by the popular and tabloid press about her. The line being pushed is that this lady is somewhat of a “lightweight” whose main claim to fame is the lack of clothes she wears on occasion.
As a former professional photographer who has worked with photographic models I can confirm that the classic image of models as “empty headed bimbos” is for the vast majority of models very wide of the mark. Many attractive young women who enter this field of work do so as a stepping stone to another career and as a method of earning a significant sum of money early in their working lives. For most it is a short term job – it is for the vast majority by definition, a short to medium term career simply by the biological fact that “we all do fade as leaves on the tree….”
The report that motivated the posting of today’s blog-post was Miss Sánchez’s sub orbital flight with six other women: On 14th April, 2025, Blue Origin completed a successful sub-orbital crewed mission aboard its Blue Origin NS-31 as part of the New Shepard Program. Passengers included Gayle King, Katy Perry, Amanda Nguyen, Aisha Bowe, Lauren Sanchez, and Kerianne Flynn. The flight reached a peak altitude of 106 km (just under 69 miles) and lasted 10 minutes and 21 seconds (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Shepard).
This experience was treated with a combination of disdain and mirth by many in the popular press and tabloids as a group of over-privileged attention seeking women doing something very dramatic.
The press made light of their achievement. Well, the press were being unfair. True some or all of the women might have been attention seeking and yes, this was an achievement that required great wealth (theirs or another’s). That however does NOT detract from the fact that all six of these ladies were required to “quell their terrors” and thus all six showed considerable courage. This because sitting on the top of a rocket is an extremely risky venture!
People who demonstrate courage (even when the motivation is attention seeking) get my respect and admiration.
The reason this resonates with me was that between 1980 and 1984 I worked for a firm that supplied the builders of the Royal Navy’s nuclear submarines at Barrow in Furnace. The nature of the product was such that the attendance of a employee or representative of the firm was expected on the submarine’s test dive before formal commissioning into the RN.
Neither of the two chief executives wished to embark on said submarine and thus I was asked to take their place and the forms representative to monitor the performance of the product that the firm supplied.
Since I was required to embark on a submarine, I was required to undergo Submarine Escape Training at Gosport. The Royal Navy’s Submarine Escape Training Tank (SETT) in Gosport has been a prominent local landmark for decades. The first man ascended the 100ft (30m) column of water to simulate emerging from a submarine in 1954. The Royal Navy stopped training with it in 2012.
I can truly say that this was the most terrifying thing I have ever done.
Although I have been employed in the UK defence industry and have been on UK military bases and have thus met with members of the UK’s armed forces, I have never served myself – and would never wish to. I do however have the utmost respect and admiration towards those men and women who do.
So, were I to be offered a place aboard such a rocket would I accept?
No way!