Van Horn, Texas: Pop icon Katy Perry will launch into space as part of an all-women flight aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.
This flight will be making history as first such mission since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo spaceflight in 1963.
Perry will be joined by Lauren Sanchez, the fiancée of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, as well as CBS anchor Gayle King, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, and film producer Kerianne Flynn.
Historic Flight
While no specific launch date has been announced, Blue Origin confirmed that the flight will take place this spring. Given that Perry’s Lifetimes Tour runs from April 23 to November 11, the mission is expected to occur before her tour begins.
In a statement Perry expressed her excitement and exclaimed that, “If you had told me I’d be part of the first all-female crew in space, I would have believed you. Nothing was beyond my imagination as a child.”
The NS-31 mission will mark New Shepard’s 11th human spaceflight and its 31st launch overall. To date, the program has sent 52 people into space.
https://twitter.com/blueorigin/status/1895109914223050764
Each New Shepard flight lasts approximately 11 minutes, during which passengers experience weightlessness as they pass the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space. The spacecraft is fully autonomous, meaning there are no pilots on board.
Blue Origin credited Lauren Sanchez for assembling the mission, stating in its press release that, “She is honoured to lead a team of explorers on a mission that will challenge their perspectives of Earth, empower them to share their own stories, and create a lasting impact that will inspire generations to come.”
Sanchez had first announced her all-women spaceflight plans in a 2023 Vogue interview, emphasizing that they were “paving the way for women in space.”
Celebrity Space travels
This mission adds to the growing trend of high-profile figures journeying beyond Earth.
- Jeff Bezos flew on Blue Origin’s first manned spaceflight in 2021.
- Good Morning America co-host Michael Strahan and Star Trek legend William Shatner have also traveled to space aboard New Shepard.
- Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson made history by flying aboard his company’s VSS Unity spacecraft in July 2021.
- SpaceX founder Elon Musk, however, has yet to make a spaceflight.
This mission represents another milestone in the commercial space industry, offering more opportunities for women in space exploration while expanding the future of space tourism.
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