A Blue Origin rocket sent pop star Katy Perry and company founder Jeff Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sánchez and four others on an 11-minute trip to the edge of space.
This was the first all-female crew that went to space in more than 60 years. The flight launched around 9:30 a.m. New York time from West Texas.
The other members on board are CBS’s Gayle King, producer Kerianne Flynn, former NASA scientist Aisha Bowe, and Amanda Nguyen, a bioastronautics research scientist.
Live: Katy Perry sang ‘What a Wonderful World’ during space flight
During the 11-minute space flight, Katy Perry reportedly sang the song ‘What a Wonderful World,’ in space, according to Gayle King, who said that her flight instructor said she was the best success story as she had never seen someone go to space who was afraid of flying.
10 facts about Blue Origin's all-women NS-31 flight
- Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket NS-31 was launched around 9:30 a.m. New York time from West Texas.
- It was the 11th human spaceflight for the Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos in 2000 after making a fortune with Amazon.
- It carried an all-women crew consisting of pop star Katy Perry, Jeff Bezos’s fiancee Lauren Sánchez, BS’s Gayle King, producer Kerianne Flynn, former NASA scientist Aisha Bowe, and Amanda Nguyen, a bioastronautics research scientist and advocate for survivors of sexual violence.
- During the 11-minute flight, the crew of NS-31 soared past the Kármán line (100 km/62 miles), the internationally recognized boundary of space.
- Blue Origin NS-31 crew capsule had room for six people and was environmentally control for comport, having the largest windows to fly into space.
- After they reached space, the newly minted astronauts could be heard chattering from inside the rocket, with one of them saying, “You guys, look at the moon! Oh my god!”
- The fully automated Blue Origin craft rose vertically before the crew capsule detached mid-flight, later falling back to the ground slowed by parachutes and a retro rocket.
- Blue Origin has not revealed the price of trips made possible by its New Shepard rocket.
- Sánchez first announced plans to fly to space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket with an entirely female crew in 2023.
- Among the spectators were Kris Jenner and Khloe Kardashian, and Oprah Winfrey, who were at the launch site.