Billionaire entrepreneur Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin aerospace company made history when it briefly launched an all-female crew into space, becoming the first to do so since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo mission in 1963. NS-31, which denotes that this was the New Shepard suborbital rocket system’s 31st mission, notably included pop star Katy Perry, TV host Gayle King, NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics research scientist Amanda Nguyen, film producer Kerianne Flynn and former TV journalist Lauren Sánchez, who is engaged to Bezos. The entire mission, which pushed just past the Kármán Line space threshold located 62 miles above sea level, lasted 10 minutes and 21 seconds, per Fox Business.
“The Crew Capsule reached an apogee of 346,802 ft AGL / 350,449 ft MSL (106 km AGL / 107 km MSL),” Blue Origin wrote on X. “The booster reached an apogee of 346,481 ft AGL / 350,128 ft MSL (106 km AGL / 107 km MSL). Official launch time was 8:30:00 AM CDT / 13:30:00 UTC. Capsule landing occurred at 8:40:21 AM CDT / 13:40:21 UTC.” Video released by Blue Origin shows a glimpse of the action on-board as the weightless astronauts share awe-inspiring views and show various souvenirs to the camera.
Being a musician, Perry reportedly elected to sing “What a Wonderful World” in space, a decision she explained after the rocket touched back down in Texas. “It’s not about me. It’s not about singing my songs, it’s about a collective energy in there, it’s about us, it’s about making space for future women and taking up space and belonging, and it’s about this wonderful world that we see right out there and appreciating it,” Perry said. “This is all for the benefit of Earth.”
King, who has a fear of flight, was beaming upon touchdown. “I’m so proud of me right now. It’s oddly quiet when you get up there. It’s really quiet and peaceful, and you look down at the planet and think ‘that’s where we came from?’ To me, it’s such a reminder about how we need to do better, be better. Do better, be better, human beings.””It’s so nasty and so vitriolic nowadays,” King continued. “I mean if everybody could experience that peace that we had up there, and the kindness and what it takes to do what we did. All the people it took to get us up there and get us back safely, I’ll never, ever forget.”
While the mission was successful, it’s not without critics. During an episode Today With Jenna and Friends, Jenna Bush Hager and Olivia Munn discussed the mission days before it took place. “I know this probably isn’t the cool thing to say, but there are so many other things that are so important in the world right now,” remarked for former Maxim cover model, per the New York Post. “What are you guys gonna do up in space? What are you doing up there? “It’s so much money to go to space, and there’s a lot of people who can’t even afford eggs,” Munn added, referring to the egg price surge over recent months.
Supermodel Emily Ratajkowski was even sharper in her commentary, saying on TikTok that she’s “disgusted” by the event. “That’s end time shit. Like, this is beyond parody.” She continued, “You say that you care about Mother Earth, and it’s about Mother Earth, and you go up in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that is single-handedly destroying the planet. Look at the state of the world and think about how many resources went into putting these women into space. For what?”
Comedian Amy Schumer also chimed in with a sardonic bit posted to Instagram that was simply captioned “Space.” “So I’m going to space and I’m so excited. Lauren Sanchez, Katy Perry and Amanda Nguyen have been my guiding lights through this whole journey, which I just got called to be part of this space team this morning. And I’m loving it. I’ve always wanted to go to space, and also I just have to say, How high were the people who came up with the name for space? Were they like, ‘What should we call it? It’s got so much, like, space.’”
The April 14 launch was the 11th crewed flight out of Blue Origin’s 31 missions. To date, it’s brought 58 people to the edge of space, four of which have made the journey twice.
