Pop star Katy Perry is set to make history today as she joins Blue Origin’s first-ever all-female space mission aboard the New Shepard rocket. The suborbital flight, dubbed NS-31, will launch from West Texas at 8:30 a.m. local time, marking a significant milestone in space tourism and gender representation in space exploration.
Perry is part of a six-member crew that includes Lauren Sánchez, journalist and fiancée of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos; CBS anchor Gayle King; former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe; civil rights advocate Amanda Nguyen; and film producer Kerianne Flynn. This mission is the first all-women spaceflight since Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo journey in 1963.
The flight will last approximately 11 minutes, taking the crew to an altitude of over 62 miles above Earth, crossing the internationally recognized boundary of outer space known as the Kármán line. During this brief journey, the passengers will experience weightlessness for about four minutes before the capsule makes a parachute-assisted landing in the desert.
In preparation for the flight, Perry expressed her excitement on social media, sharing her lifelong dream of traveling to space: “As a child, my imagination knew no bounds. Tomorrow, I’ll live out a dream I’ve had for 15 years.” Perry hopes this experience will inspire her daughter Daisy to dream without limits.
Blue Origin’s reusable New Shepard rocket has been at the forefront of space tourism, competing with rivals like Virgin Galactic and SpaceX. While ticket prices for these exclusive flights remain undisclosed, they represent a growing trend in private space exploration aimed at making space accessible to civilians.
This historic mission highlights the growing role of women in space exploration and sets a precedent for future gender-inclusive endeavors beyond Earth’s atmosphere.