KATY Perry is set to blast off on a star-studded spaceflight inside one of Jeff Bezos’ luxurious Blue Origin capsules.
The upcoming NS-31 spaceflight will be the first all-female space flight since Russian astronaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo flight in 1963.
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Perry, 40, will be accompanied by Bezos’ fiancée, journalist Lauren Sánchez, TV host Gayle King, engineer Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn.
“I don’t have any time to be nervous; I don’t have time to be worried,” the popstar told Elle magazine.
“I’m going to feel something when they go, ’10, 9, 8, 7,…’ but until then, we’ve got stuff to do. We’ve got business to handle.”
Perry said she is compiling a playlist inspired by her upcoming trip that includes tracks by David Bowie, Nicki Minaj, the B-52’s and at least one of her own songs.
The launch is scheduled for 14 April, at 9.30am ET (2:30pm BST) from Blue Origin’s West Texas site.
The experience is expected to only last around 11 minutes – which is the average length of a Blue Origin tourist flight.
The New Shephard rocket will take the crew 62 miles into the sky, to the very edge of Earth’s atmosphere.
Here, Perry and crew will be able to see the curvature of the Earth against the inky black background of space.
While they won’t actually reach orbit, the height will create a zero-gravity effect on board, allowing the six passengers to float.
The New Shepard has already made 30 astro-tourism flights since its first crewed mission in 2021.
Blue Origin is the private space company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The upcoming NS-31 flight will be the 11th human flight on New Shepard – with each flight costing roughly $5million per launch, according to Space Insider.
The crew are currently undergoing their final training sessions.
Blue Origin representative, Sarah Knights, told Good Morning America in 2021: “We want them to be incredibly comfortable with every little thing.
“Even to the point where they’re going to know exactly where each of the cameras is inside of the vehicle, so they can plan out any photos that they want to take and get really ready for what that journey will look like as they go up.”
Inside Blue Origin astro-tourist training
Blue Origin has a training programme to prepare astro-tourists for the suborbital spaceflight experience:
Passengers will be familiarised with the capsule, training for emergency procedures, and zero-gravity simulation flights.
The training ends with mission rehearsals and a final exam.
On their first day of training, crew are “fitted in customised flight suits” to allow the group to acclimate to their flight capsule.
They will enter a life-sized test capsule where they will see their designated seats.
The final training will include zero-gravity simulation flights for the group to get used to the feeling of weightlessness.
Members of the Blue Origin staff will familiarise the crew with the layout of the capsule.
Passengers will know the location of each camera, but also oxygen masks in case of an emergency, as well as how to correspond with ground control.
