Blue Origin launch stay: Katy Perry and all-female crew to fly into house on Jeff Bezos rocket
Katy Perry and five other women are about to be launched into space on the first all-female mission in more than six decades.
The crew will journey to the edge of space in an autonomous rocket made by Blue Origin, the private space firm owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Perry will be joined by former Nasa rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, film producer Kerianne Flynn, and journalist and Bezos’s fiancée Lauren Sanchez. In a post with Ms Sanchez, Perry wrote that she would put “the ‘ass’ in astronaut”.
She added: “Alongside the post, she shared a video of the capsule that she has been “training in for the last few days”, and revealed her call name is Feather.
In another video, the “Dark Horse” singer said she is “always looking for little confirmations from the heavens, from my guides, from my angels, from my higher self”.
“When I’m looking for it, it’s pretty loud,” she added.
The rocket is set for lift-off as part of Blue Origin Flight NS-31 on April 14 at 8.30am local time, or 2.30pm in the UK.
The craft will then fly through space for around four minutes before floating back down to Earth, with the entire journey taking a little over 10 minutes.
Where will the crew launch from?
In about an hour, the crew will be aboard the New Shepard rocket at Blue Origin’s Launch Site One. As the name suggests, that’s the spaceport from which the company launches its missions.
It is in West Texas – about 30 miles north of the town of Van Horn. (You can find it on Google Maps here, and as you can see below it’s a fairly uninhabited part of the world.)
Blue Origin also operates other bases in Washington, Cape Canaveral in Florida and at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
But all of the famous missions that have carried celebrities into space, like this one – sub-orbital flights on board the New Shepard rocket – have gone from that West Texas launchpad.
Sanchez confirms she’ll be wearing Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS underwear in space
Speaking to the New York Times about the space suits that she designed, along with Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim, Sanchez revealed that she’ll be wearing a pair of Kim Kardashian’s Skims underwear into space.
On the outfits themselves, Sanchez told the NY Times: “Let’s reimagine the flight suit. Usually, you know, these suits are made for a man. Then they get tailored to fit a woman. I think the suits are elegant but they also bring a little spice to space.
“Simplicity was important, and comfort, and fit. But we also wanted something that was a little dangerous, like a motocross outfit. Or a ski suit. Flattering and sexy.”
Blue Origin launch stream now live
The webcast of the NS-13 launch is now live on X/Twitter
Who is film producer Kerianne Flynn?
The film producer has been passionate about space for a long time, even signing up to the 2011 Virgin Galactic spaceflight.
Although that trip has yet to take place, Flynn will now join five others as part of the Blue Origin team’s 11-minute trip into space.
Her work includes independent films and documentaries such as The Automatic Hate (2015), This Changes Everything (2018), and Lilly (2024).
She has served on the board of several non-profit organisations and has worked across the fields of fashion, human resources, and culture.
Speaking to Elle USA, Flynn said: “I grew up in a small town in Michigan, and I always looked up at the stars with my grandfather. He would talk about celestial events and explain the astronomy of the sky. I wondered, ‘What is out there, and what is up there?’ But going through the rest of my life—my career, my education—it just didn’t seem like something that was attainable. So when this opportunity came along, especially to be part of a historic all-female crew, I felt honoured and excited.”
Bowe says she’s been “certified ready to fly to space”
In an Instagram post documenting her preparations, Bowe said: “All systems GO! I’ve been officially certified ready to fly to space by CrewMember 7, Sarah Knights.”
Who is aerospace engineer and entrepreneur Aisha Bowe?
A former NASA rocket scientist, Bowe is not just an aerospace engineer, but also a successful CEO and entrepreneur.
The 38-year-old Bahamian-American has a particular passion for advocating for the importance of STEM and is a recipient of the NASA Equal Employment Opportunity Medal and US Women’s Chamber of Commerce Emerging Star Award.
In 2020, her technology company STEMboard became one of the fastest-growing privately-owned companies in the US.
Born to a working-class family, she was advised to go into cosmetology, but her father encouraged her to take maths at a local college instead.
Ahead of her flight, she wrote: “From the intense training to the quiet moments of reflection, I’ll be sharing it all. This journey has been years in the making, and the reality of it is finally setting in.”
Nguyen said after ‘years of fighting for rights – I am travelling to space’
In an Instagram post, shared six weeks before the Blue Origin flight, Nguyen detailed her journey in a moving video.
She wrote: “For 10 years, I traded my telescope for a pen to draft laws protecting survivors. Congress and the UN passed my laws unanimously. But I never forgot her, the person I was before I was hurt. I’m flying for survivors. For every survivor who has been told countless times that speaking up will ruin your life. That the stigma of being a victim or survivor will haunt us forever. You can heal. You can honour the person you were before you were hurt. Her dreams still matter. And no matter how outrageous they are, like flying to space, they can still come true.”
Who is civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen?
The 33-year-old Nobel Prize-nominated civil rights activist and social entrepreneur is driven by a personal mission to advocate for the rights of survivors of assault after being raped as a student at Harvard in 2013.
Nguyen is credited with drafting the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Act in 2018 after feeling frustrated by restrictions in the legal system.
She was subsequently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 and named one of Time’s Women of the Year in 2022. She interned at NASA in 2011 and 2013, aspiring to be an astronaut.
She also worked as the deputy White House liaison for the US department of state.
She fulfilled her dream and became a scientist astronaut candidate in 2021 at the International Institute of Astronautical Sciences researching women’s health and menstruation.
She has played a prominent role in raising awareness about violence against Asian Americans. To add to her credentials, Nguyen will also be the first Vietnamese woman to travel to space.
CBS shares images of King preparing for space
King’s show CBS Mornings has shared images of the broadcaster preparing for her journey into space.
Who is Gayle King?
Best known as the close friend of billionaire TV personality and businesswoman, Oprah Winfrey, King has made a name for herself as a broadcast journalist for CBS Mornings.
The pair first met while working in TV in their early 20s. King is 70 years old and has two children.
Her and Sanchez’s flight will make them the first journalists in history to enter space.
“This was never my dream. It was never my dream,” King told CBS. “And somebody said, maybe you need to have new dreams, Gayle.”
Source: independent.co.uk
