Pop icon Katy Perry, all-female crew set for historic blue origin spaceflight

New Delhi, Apr 14: Pop icon Katy Perry will be part of an all-female crew set to launch into space aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, marking a rare milestone in space travel history. The suborbital mission, operated by Jeff Bezos’ private aerospace company, is scheduled to lift off from Launch Site One in West Texas, with a launch window opening at 08:30 local time (14:30 BST) which is around 7 pm in India today. The launch will be a live broadcast by several international media houses.

Joining Perry on the NS-31 mission are Lauren Sánchez, fiancée of Jeff Bezos; veteran broadcaster Gayle King; former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe; bioastronautics researcher and civil rights advocate Amanda Nguyen; and film producer Kerianne Flynn. This will be the first all-female spaceflight since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova's solo mission in 1963.

The New Shepard spacecraft, which is fully autonomous and requires no pilots, will carry the crew more than 100 kilometers above Earth, beyond the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space. The brief journey will last approximately 11 minutes and include a few moments of weightlessness before the capsule returns to Earth under parachutes. The rocket booster will land itself separately a short distance from the launch site.

This flight marks the 11th human mission for the New Shepard program, which has previously flown 52 individuals to the edge of space. The spacecraft’s operations are part of Blue Origin’s space tourism initiative, aimed at expanding access to suborbital spaceflight, primarily for private passengers. While hailed by supporters as a symbolic moment for women in science and exploration, the mission has also attracted some public criticism over the exclusivity and extravagance of private space travel, particularly during times of global crisis. Nevertheless, the crew of the NS-31 mission represents a wide range of professional backgrounds, from media and music to science and activism, highlighting the growing intersection of spaceflight with popular culture and public engagement.