1 week Ago By [email protected] (Fiona Leishman)
Pop star Katy Perry is set to blast off into space today as part of an all-female crew aboard Amazon owner Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket. The first all-female commercial space flight will have the pop sensation on board along with Lauren Sánchez , Bezos' wife-to-be, and four other women. Gayle King , co-host of 'CBS Mornings', Amanda Nguyen, a bioastronautics research scientist, and Kerianne Flynn, a movie producer, are set to join the 11 minute flight to the edge of space and back.
The crew is scheduled to launch into space at 9.30am eastern time from Blue Origin's launch site in Van Horn, Texas. Speaking ahead of her trip to space, Katy Perry, 40, said: "I'm really excited.
.. We are all made of stardust and it'll be exciting to see them twinkle from that site and have such an appreciation for Mother Earth when we see it in that way.
I am talking to myself every day going: You're brave, you're bold, you're doing this to ensure so many different people - but especially young girls - to go 'I'll go into space in the future. No limitations'." The group are set to cross the Kármán Line - the invisible border separating Earth and space - where they will spend four minutes floating in zero gravity with views of the curve of the Earth and the thin line of atmosphere that protects it.
The mission has been dubbed NS-31 as it will be the 31st flight to date for Blue Origin's New Shepard, a reusable rocket-capsule combo. Of those 31 flights, this will be the 11th crewed flight for New Shepard, as other missions were uncrewed for the purposes of research. New Shepard, named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space, is an autonomous space craft designed to fly to and from suborbital space without a pilot on board.
The flight is also set to be the first all-female spaceflight since June 16, 1963, when the Soviet Union's Valentina Tereshkova took a three-day solo flight to Earth orbit. Blue Origin's rocket is set to launch with an acceleration of more than three times the speed of sound, after the experience, the crew will descend in the capsule under parachutes before landing in the Texas dessert. Key details of today's Blue Origin launch The launch is scheduled to take place at 8.
30am local time in Texas, which is 2.30pm in the UK. The entire journey is set to last between 10 and 12 minutes, with around four minutes of that being spent in free flight as New Shepard crosses the Kármán line, which lies 62 miles above Earth's surface marking the edge of space.
Here, those on board will be able to experience weightlessness for several minutes, along with breathtaking views from the capsule's windows showing the curvature of the Earth and the thin line of atmosphere that protects us. After that, the capsule will begin its descent to Earth, hoping to gently touch down in the Texas desert with the help of parachutes. Who will be on board first all-female space flight in 60 years? Blue Origin's New Shepard launch will have aboard an all-female crew for the first time since 1963, making it a key moment in history.
It will also be the first all-female commercial space flight, as the last all-female flight was a solo trip that lasted just shy of three days by Russian engineer Valentina Tereshkova. But who will be on board the vessel with no pilot? Joining pop icon Katy Perry will be Amazon owner Jeff Bezos' fiancée, Lauren Sánchez, a journalist and author. They will also be joined by American TV personality and co-host of CBS Morning Gayle King.
Unlike other members, she has admitted that going to space "was never my dream". However, she said she wants to "open myself up to new adventures and step out of my comfort zone." Amanda Nguyen will also be on board, a civil rights activist who was named Woman of the Year by Time in 2022 due to her advocacy for survivors of sexual assault, which changed the way law enforcement handles rape kits.
In a post she shared her experience of sexual assault "could have derailed my astronaut dreams". The first Vietnamese woman to fly to space added: "Fought for survivor rights, rewrote the law, and now in 7 days I'm flying to space." Also joining the crew is Kerianne Flynn, a film producer behind independent films such as Lilly (2024), This Changes Everything (2018) and The AUtomatic Hate (2015).
Speaking ahead of her flight she said she grew up in a small Michigan town as "always looked up at the stars with my grandfather". She said she always wondered what is up there, but as she went through the rest of her life, "it just didn't seem like something that was attainable." She added: "So when this opportunity came along, especially to be part of a historic all-female crew, I felt honoured and excited.
" A former Nasa rocket scientist and entrepreneur is also heading to space with the crew. Aisha Bowe is the founder of STEMBoard, a tech company providing advisory services for federal and commercial organisations. She said the mission "isn't only about my journey, it's for every kid who's been told they don't belong, who's felt overlooked or underestimated".
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