Blue Origin, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ space company, is making history by sending an all-female crew on its next spaceflight this month. The American spacecraft company’s 11th human mission, NS-31, will include pop singer Katy Perry, Bezos’ fiancé and former journalist Lauren Sánchez, CBS host Gayle King, NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics research scientist Amanda Nguyễn and film producer Kerianne Flynn.
The mission’s planned liftoff is April 14, with a launch window opening at 8:30 a.m. CDT, depending on weather and other factors. According to the Blue Origin website, the astronauts will ascend toward space at more than three times the speed of sound. Once they pass the line, the crew can unbuckle and float weightless before returning to Earth.
The mission is part of Blue Origin’s New Shepard program, which has flown 52 people above the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space about 62 miles above Earth.
First all-female crew since a Russian solo flight in the ’60s
The flight will mark the first all-female crew since Russian engineer Valentina Tereshkova’s solo spaceflight in 1963.
Bowe told Elle magazine in an interview published this week that she’s “been training for and waiting for this moment my entire life.” Nguyen agreed, calling it “a dream come true.”
Reactions among the others varied:
“I have wanted to go to space for almost 20 years,” Perry said during the interview with Elle.
“I had a lot of trepidation — I still do — but I also know it’s very interesting to be terrified and excited at the same time,” King told Elle. “I can honestly say it has never been a dream of mine.”
Blue Origin has taken many notable names up above the Earth before, including actor William Shatner, Good Morning America host and retired NFL player Michael Strahan and Bezos himself.
