Katy Perry and All-Female Crew Make History on Blue Origin Spaceflight​

This Monday, Blue Origin's Jeff Bezos launched fiancée Lauren Sanchez into space, along with an all-female celebrity crew including singer-songwriter Katy Perry and longtime CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King.

It is the latest wave in space tourism, where more of the rich and famous than ever before, or lucky and well-connected, enter into the zero-gravity domain normally reserved for professional astronauts. The New Shepard rocket flew aboard a rapid up-and-down flight from the West Texas launch site. It soared approximately 105 km into space - a tiny slice of weightlessness just about promised for a few minutes.

Film producer Kerianne Flynn, Aisha Bowe, a former NASA engineer who set up her own companies promoting science education, and Amanda Nguyen, a planetary scientist currently working as an advocate for survivors of sexual violence, also shared the flight with Perry and King. Blue Origin would not comment on the cost or the payment arrangement of the flight.

It was the 11th human spaceflight for the company, which is based in Washington state and was established by Bezos in 2000 after making his fortune with Amazon.

Twitter was flooded with comments while appreciating Blue Origin. One user wrote, "Bravo, Blue Origin! The NS-31 crew looked amazing—so inspiring to see these space pioneers take to the skies. I’m curious: for your next mission, could we see a crew full of cosmic geeks? Imagine the stories, the passion, and the creative energy they’d bring to the stars. What do you think?"

Another user commented, "I hope since it’s all women they can demonstrate that women are just as able as men to accomplish this kind of mission. Prayers in for a smooth mission and flight."

In 2021, Bezos underwent Blue Origin's first-ever space tourist flight, as he joined the latest crew to the launchpad.

The launch of the celebrities was the first-ever U.S. space flight with an all-women crew. The only other all-female crew in 64 years of human space flight was in 1963, when Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova launched alone, becoming the first woman in space. Tereshkova was in orbit for three days.

Only about 15 per cent of the more than 700 people to have flown to space are women, even after the last launch. Sanchez said she planned to bring along four other women, all of whom were enthusiastic about inspiring young and old alike to dream big and even had special flight suits made.

Blue Origin's NS-31 mission not only marks a significant milestone in space travel but also serves as a beacon for gender representation in STEM fields. As the company continues to develop its space tourism program, the success of this all-female flight may pave the way for more inclusive and diverse crews in the future.