Pop icon Katy Perry is preparing for an out-of-this-world experience as she joins an all-female crew for Blue Origin’s upcoming space mission, the company announced on Thursday.
Perry will be accompanied by Lauren Sanchez, journalist and fiancée of Jeff Bezos, as well as CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King. The mission is part of Blue Origin’s initiative to send celebrities and tourists into space, a venture the company has pursued since 2021 with its New Shepard rocket.
A star-studded space journey
The New Shepard rocket, named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space, has already taken 52 people to suborbital space across 10 crewed missions. Past passengers include Star Trek legend William Shatner and Bezos himself.
The upcoming mission will also feature:
- Amanda Nguyen, a research scientist
- Aisha Bowe, a former NASA rocket scientist
- Kerianne Flynn, a film producer
This will mark the first all-female spaceflight crew since Valentina Tereshkova’s historic solo flight in 1963.
The Blue Origin experience
New Shepard flights, launched from West Texas, last around 10 to 11 minutes from takeoff to landing. Passengers experience a few minutes of weightlessness as the capsule crosses the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space, 100 kilometers (62 miles) above sea level.
The rocket booster returns to Earth with a vertical landing, while the passenger capsule descends gently with parachutes, touching down in the Texas desert.
Bezos’ vision for space
Like Elon Musk, the only person wealthier than him, Jeff Bezos has a deep-rooted passion for space exploration. While Musk dreams of colonizing Mars, Bezos envisions a future where heavy industries move off-planet onto floating space platforms, preserving Earth—”humanity’s blue origin.”
Blue Origin has been expanding its presence in the commercial space industry, successfully launching the massive New Glenn rocket in January. The company has also secured a NASA contract to build a lunar lander for future Artemis missions, which aim to return humans to the moon.
Additionally, New Glenn will support Project Kuiper, Bezos’ ambitious satellite internet initiative, set to rival Musk’s Starlink.
