Katy Perry and her all-female crew shot “across the sky” like a firework and blasted off into space on a Blue Origin rocket.
The E.T. singer, along with journalist Gayle King and billionaire Jeff Bezos’ fiancée, Lauren Sánchez, launched to the edge of space on Monday morning as part of Blue Origin’s latest mission, called NS-31.
Former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics research scientist Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn rounded out the all-female crew on the New Shepard rocket, a 59-foot-tall (18-metre) suborbital spacecraft. This marked the first all-female flight crew in more than six decades to head to space.
Ahead of the flight, Bezos told Sánchez over the radio transmission that he wished he was going up with her.
“Most amazing, most profound experience. I’m so excited for you, I don’t wanna get off. I wanna go with you. When you get back, I can’t wait to hear how it’s changed you. I love all of you. God speed,” he said.
As the capsule reached the edge of space, audio from the astronauts could be heard through the radio, with the crew saying, “Oh my God guys, look at that. It’s the moon!”
Blue Origin’s mission control gave the crew a heads-up that they had one minute left to enjoy the views after reaching the edge of space.
There was a sonic boom as the rocket re-entered the atmosphere, and the Blue Origin correspondents called it “a perfect landing.”
“Congratulations and welcome back to Earth,” mission control radioed to the six women as the capsule touched down in the Texas desert.
Blue Origin said that the New Shepard crew reached an altitude of more than 346,000 feet, with the mission taking just over 10 minutes in total.
Bezos opened the capsule’s hatch, and Sánchez was the first to exit, embracing her fiancé.
Perry, who followed, kissed the ground and lifted the daisy she’d carried on board in honour of her four-year-old daughter, Daisy Dove. Next, Nguyen and Bowe emerged, followed by King, who fell to her knees and kissed the ground. Last to exit was Flynn, who threw her arms up in the air and cheered.
In a post-flight interview, Sánchez said that they were “all connected,” and now she just wants to hug everyone and tell them, “We are all in this together.”
“It was a feeling of joy and camaraderie. A feeling of gratefulness. A feeling of ‘We are doing this,’” Sánchez added.
Sánchez also joked that she “had to come back” to Earth because she’s “getting married” later this year in Italy.
Nguyen expressed her gratitude to everyone who made the launch happen. “No dream is too wild,” she said.
Flynn said she felt extremely emotional once they landed back on Earth.
“It was the most incredible experience of my life to be up there and see such vast darkness in space and look down on our planet,” Flynn said. “The moon was so beautiful, and I felt like that was a special gift just for me.”
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King said that she still cannot accept the word “astronaut,” adding, “what happened to us was not a ride, it was a bonafide frickin’ flight.”
She said that she is “so proud of herself” for taking part in the flight and pushing her fears aside.
“For me, it’s such a reminder that we need to do better, be better, as human beings,” King said. “If everyone could experience the peace we had up there and the kindness … I’ll never, ever, ever forget.”
King also shared that Perry did not sing Firework or Roar because the pop star didn’t want to make the moment about herself. Instead, Perry sang, What a Wonderful World, while the crew approached the Earth.
Bowe said “there’s no boundaries, there’s no borders, there’s just Earth” once you reach the edge of space.
“When we got up there and out of our seats, we all just looked at each other,” the former NASA rocket scientist said. “There was this moment — and I can’t wait for everyone to see it on the video —between all of us, and it’s just beautiful, so beautiful.”
Bowe noted that her 92-year-old grandfather said he was nervous as he watched the Blue Origin rocket take off, but then “Oprah Winfrey squeezed him.”
Perry said she feels “super connected to love” after returning to Earth.
She spoke about her daughter watching and why she chose to bring a daisy on the flight with her, saying, “Daisies are common flowers, but they grow through any condition. They grow through cement, cracks, walls. They are resilient, they are strong, they are everywhere.”
“Flowers, to me, are God’s smile, but they are also a reminder of our beautiful Earth. The beautiful magic is everywhere, all around us, even in a simple daisy,” Perry added.
Perry also spoke about singing What a Wonderful World on the descent and said the experience is not about her and that “it is all for the benefit of Earth.”
“This experience is second to being a mom,” she said when asked about the mission. “That’s why it was hard for me to go because that’s all my love right there.”
Kris Jenner and Khloé Kardashian were at the Blue Origin launch site to support their friends before the flight.
“We’re here to support our girlfriend and our friends, and I never thought that we’d be talking to you from a space launch for sure,” Jenner said.
Kardashian shared tips they had been hearing on-site from the Blue Origin staff.
“I love the messaging that we keep receiving from the staff here at Blue Origin is, don’t film it through your phones. Look through your eyes. Be as present as possible,” Kardashian said.
Winfrey expressed her pride in her best friend, King, who has a fear of flying.
“I’ve never been more proud of my friend than today,” the legendary former talk show host said. “This is bigger than just going to space. This is overcoming a wall of fear. I think it’s going to be cathartic.”
The crew experienced a few minutes of microgravity before returning to Earth by parachute, landing in the West Texas desert at the company’s Launch Site One.
“I LOVE YOU,” Perry wrote on X ahead of the launch.
“I’m so excited for this launch. I have never felt this much love as I’m getting today,” Perry said in an Instagram video.
Today’s flight marks the 11th human flight for the rocket and its 31st overall. The last recorded all-female spaceflight was the 1963 solo mission of Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space.
New Shepard has previously taken other notable names to space, including Star Trek actor William Shatner, former NFL player Michael Strahan, and Bezos.
In the lead-up to the flight, Perry told The Associated Press about her interest in space ahead of the mission.
“I was listening to Cosmos by Carl Sagan and reading a book on string theory,” she recalled. “I’ve always been interested in astrophysics and interested in astronomy and astrology and the stars. We are all made of stardust and we all come from the stars.”
She also revealed how she was getting herself prepared to take the flight.
“I am talking to myself every day and going, ‘You’re brave, you’re bold, you are doing this for the next generation to inspire so many different people but especially young girls to go, I’ll go to space in the future. No limitations,’” she said.
Perry said she has been “psychologically” preparing for the spaceflight by reading the works.
“I’m really excited about the engineering of it all. I’m excited to learn more about STEM and just the math about what it takes to accomplish this type of thing,” she said.
Perry said that whenever she tries something new or daunting, she looks inward for strength and confidence.
“Using that feminine divine that I was born with and definitely unlocked when I had my daughter even more. It leveled up for sure. Being a mother just makes you level up with that type of power,” she said.
Bezos’ rocket company Blue Origin announced the crew in February. Sánchez, a helicopter pilot and former TV journalist, selected the women who would join her on a 10-minute spaceflight from West Texas.
“I am feeling so grateful and grounded and honoured to be invited and included with this incredible group of women,” Perry had previously said.
Sánchez is said to have “brought the mission together” for the flight of the New Shepard rocket, named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space.
“She is 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,” according to an earlier statement from Blue Origin.
Sánchez described the flight as “a life-changing experience for each of us.”
“Most importantly, I am looking forward to all the women in this crew sharing their story and inspiring future generations to dream big,” she added.
