A Blue Origin rocket sent pop star Katy Perry and company founder Jeff Bezos’s fiancee Lauren Sanchez on a trip to the edge of space and back. It was the first time an all-female crew went to space in more than 60 years.
The flight launched from west Texas on a roughly 11-minute trip for a quick experience of weightlessness. The other members on board were CBS’s Gayle King, producer Kerianne Flynn, former Nasa scientist Aisha Bowe, and Amanda Nguyen, a bioastronautics research scientist and advocate for survivors of sexual violence.
After they reached space, the newly minted astronauts could be heard speaking from inside the rocket.
Sanchez first announced plans to fly to space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket with an entirely female crew in 2023, when speaking with Vogue. At the time, she said her fellow passengers were all remarkable and “paving the way for women”.
Before lift-off, Bezos could be seen at the launch site.
Oprah Winfrey, a close friend of King, was also on the launch site, saying at one point “none of us will ever forget this day.”
Other celebrities have also taken the suborbital joyride, including actor William Shatner – who was 90 years old at the time – in October 2021 and Good Morning America co-host Michael Strahan in December 2021.
Blue Origin’s space tourism model – and the customers who pay for it – have come under scrutiny recently from actress Olivia Munn, who called the experience “a bit gluttonous” at a time of economic hardship for many Americans.
While Blue Origin does not disclose its price for a seat on one of its tourism flights, rival space tourism company Virgin Galactic charges about $600,000 for a similar experience.
The company’s 11th human space flight comes after Blue Origin successfully completed a trip to orbit on its newer heavy-lift rocket New Glenn in January and subsequently trimmed about 10 per cent of its workforce in the following weeks.
Following the layoffs, Blue Origin chief executive Dave Limp said the company is looking to the future, including landing an uncrewed vehicle on the moon in 2025 and increasing the cadence of New Glenn and New Shepard launches. – Bloomberg
