Katy Perry is leaving her “Teenage Dream” behind for a cosmic one. The pop icon is going to space. She will join an all-women crew on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. She’s not going alone, either. Joining her are TV legend Gayle King, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, film producer Kerianne Flynn, and Jeff Bezos’ fiancée, Lauren Sanchez. Oh, and in case you missed it, this will be the first all-women space mission since 1963. That was over six decades ago.
The last all-female space mission was with Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. Since then, no spaceflight has been exclusively female-led. Although, women have flown to space, but always in mixed-gender crews. That changes now. Blue Origin is making history by launching an all-women crew, and Perry just happens to be one of the lucky few.
The NS-31 mission will cross the Kármán line, the edge of space. Moreover, the New Shepard (Blue Origin’s 60-foot reusable suborbital rocket) is fully autonomous, so there are no pilots. The flight will launch from Texas and last about 11 minutes. The crew will float in zero gravity and see Earth from space. The capsule will land safely using parachutes. The mission, known as NS-31, is scheduled for spring 2025.
Katy Perry’s Space Dreams Are Coming True
Katy Perry has always been a utopian, but even she couldn’t have foreknew this. “If you had told me I’d be part of the first all-female crew in space, I would have believed you,” she said in a statement (per BBC). “Nothing was beyond my imagination as a child.”
If any pop star was going to space, it had to be her. This is the woman who dressed as an alien for E.T., wore cupcake bras, and floated on a giant hand for her Super Bowl performance. Space was always the next logical step. With Perry’s Lifetimes Tour beginning on April 23, the launch will likely occur before then. However, Blue Origin has yet to announce an exact date.
This mission will be Blue Origin’s 11th crewed flight and the 31st in its history. So far, the company has sent 52 people into space, but this will be the first time an all-women team will take part in the journey.
Lauren Sanchez, the mastermind beyond the mission, first revealed plans for this mission in a 2023 interview with Vogue, saying: “paving the way for women.” At the time, people were skeptical. But here we are, and it’s actually happening.
Recently, Sanchez said: “I’m honored to lead a team of explorers on a mission that will challenge their perspectives of Earth, empower them to share their own stories, and create lasting impact that will inspire generations to come,” she said (as reported by BBC).
The former American Idol judge isn’t the first celebrity to travel to space. Jeff Bezos himself was on the first-ever crewed Blue Origin flight in 2021. William Shatner, Good Morning America host Michael Strahan, and even Richard Branson have all taken a spin outside the planet. Still, this mission isn’t about billionaire bragging rights. It’s about making history.
Right now, Blue Origin hasn’t set a specific launch date, but it’s happening soon. One thing’s for sure—this mission will be one for the books. The 40-year-old Katy Perry is about to do something no other pop star has done.
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