Katy Perry is sticking to her guns and refusing to give in to people criticizing her space flight as wasteful and ostentatious, as a source exclusively tells In Touch that, despite the backlash, she’s still glad she had the opportunity to live one of her self-proclaimed “dreams.”

“When Richard Branson went a few years ago she started enquiring about how she could go and what it would cost, so it was a no-brainer when Lauren Sánchez invited her to join this mission, she jumped at the chance,” the source says. 

The expedition was lambasted by the public for the most part for being a prohibitively expensive stunt that’s only affordable for the mega rich and their friends and a possible environmental risk. There was also the bizarre behavior of those on board while floating weightlessly and back on solid ground. Katy, 40, Gayle King, and Jeff Bezos’ wife Lauren, 55, in addition to NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, film producer Kerianne Flynn and civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, formed the all-women team that went up. But to most who watched the footage, they congealed into an uncanny, bizarre troupe of tone-deaf adventure tourists. 

Even other celebrities were openly disgusted with the antics. Model Emily Ratajkowski said, “That space mission this morning? That’s end time s–t. Like, this is beyond parody,” on TikTok.

“I know this probably isn’t the cool thing to say, but there are so many other things that are so important in the world right now,” Olivia Munn added to the conversation.

In direct repudiation of the “empowerment” angle of the stunt’s coordinators, Jessica Chastain penned an opinion piece for The Guardian titled, “The Blue Origin flight showcased the utter defeat of American feminism.”

Still, on the very first performance of her Lifetimes tour in Mexico, the “Roar” singer took to the stage and asked the audience, “Has anyone ever called your dreams crazy?” in defiance of the disapproval and judgement being thrown her way. The source notes that even though she’s catching hate, for Katy it was a life-changing experience she wouldn’t trade for the world.

“A lot of people in her world were quite nervous for her, because of course there are huge risks, but Katy didn’t seem the least bit afraid. She had total confidence that this would go off without a hitch and she feels beyond lucky and honored to have been chosen to be a part of it,” the source says. 

“She was in great shape mentally and physically for it, but it still took a lot of training to prepare, which was a thrill in and of itself.” 

While publicly the caper isn’t being received well, for the “Woman’s World” singer, it was a personal mission that even ended up bringing her closer to husband Orlando Bloom.

“Katy loves taking on new challenges and she had the full support of Orlando, who coached her through different meditations that she used to keep herself calm during the take-off,” the source adds.

“It really was a dream come true for Katy, she’d been wanting to go to space for as long as she can remember.”