The lyrics to “E.T.” by Katy Perry just got a bit more meta.
On February 27, Blue Origin announced an all-female crew for its private NS-31 mission to space, in what appears to be an effort to promote space tourism. The group of six women, including Katy Perry and Gayle King, was organized by the vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund, Lauren Sanchez, an Emmy Award–winning journalist and aerial filmmaker who is currently engaged to Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos.
According to Blue Origin, the aerospace company founded by Bezos, its New Shephard program has already flown 52 people “above the Kármán line,” which is 62 miles above Earth and considered the internationally recognized boundary of space. What do we know about this mission and the women on board? Here’s everything we’ve learned so far.
Who is going to space?
According to the announcement, Sanchez “brought the mission together” and 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.”
Beyond her role at Bezos Earth Fund, Sanchez is a licensed helicopter pilot and the founder of Black Ops Aviation, “the first female-owned and operated aerial film and production company.”
Sanchez’s crew includes famous journalist Gayle King and pop star Katy Perry, as well as former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics research scientist Amanda Nguyen, and film producer Kerianne Flynn. “I’m so afraid, but I’m also so excited,” King said while announcing the her trip on CBS Mornings, revealing that “the crew” already created a group chat.
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After working for as an aerospace engineer for NASA, Aisha Bowe became the CEO of the engineering firm StemBoard and founded Lingo to promote STEM education. According to Blue Origins, “Aisha hopes her journey from community college to space will inspire young people in the Bahamas and around the world to pursue their dreams.”
Meanwhile, 33-year-old Havard University graduate Amanda Nguyen has worked on multiple missions for NASA and is set to become the first Vietnamese and Southeast Asian to travel to space. Alongside her STEM career, Nguyen has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy work, having founded the civil rights organization Rise and drafted the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Rights Act. She was named Time’s Woman of the Year in 2022.
The sixth member of the crew is Kerianne Flynn, a film producer known for This Changes Everything (2018), a documentary on gender disparity in Hollywood, and Lilly (2024), the Patricia Clarkson–led biopic about Lilly Ledbetter, a factory worker turned women’s rights advocate who dedicated her life to the fight for equal pay.
When are they going to space?
The all-women flight will launch this spring, though the official date has not yet been announced.
What are the details?
This is the 31st New Shephard flight, though only its 11th journey with human occupants. According to Blue Origin’s website, “New Shepard astronauts ascend toward space at more than three times the speed of sound. They pass the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space 62 miles (100 kilometers) above Earth, before unbuckling to float weightless and gaze at our planet. The crew returns gently under parachutes, forever changed.”
You can learn more about booking a spot on a New Shepard flight here, though you have to contact their sales department for pricing information.
This is not the first all-women space crew.
In June 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova embarked on a 71-hour solo mission aboard the Vostok 6, becoming the first woman to travel into space. And while this Blue Origin group will be the first all-female flight crew since Tereshkova’s trip, NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Christina Koch performed the first all-woman spacewalk in October 2019.
This article may be updated.
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