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American singer Katy Perry, Jeff Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sanchez, and four other women completed a short but historic trip to space on Monday, landing safely back on Earth aboard a Blue Origin capsule, foreign media reported.
The capsule touched down successfully amid cheers and applause from spectators.
Capsule touchdown. Welcome back, NS-31 crew!
Advertisement · Scroll to continue— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) April 14, 2025
The space flight, operated by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, included a crew of six women—Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyễn, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sánchez – all of whom appeared to be in good condition following the return, reports suggest.
A voice over the capsule’s radio was heard saying, “Congratulations and welcome back to Earth”, confirming the successful completion of the flight.
Key stats from today’s New Shepard crewed NS-31 mission:
- The Crew Capsule reached an apogee of 346,802 ft AGL / 350,449 ft MSL (106 km AGL / 107 km MSL).
- 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.
- The mission elapsed time was 10 min 21 sec.
WATCH THE LIVE BROADCAST HERE:
🔵 LIVE NOW: Tune in to watch the NS-31 webcast hosted by Charissa Thompson, Kristin Fisher, and Ariane Cornell!https://t.co/YmOppG43C2
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) April 14, 2025
The mission, known as NS-31 on a reusable rocket, lifted off from Van Horn in Texas and featured the first all-female crewed spaceflight in 60 years. The first woman to travel in space was Soviet-era cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, in a 1963 solo mission when she orbited Earth as part of the Vostok 6 mission that lasted just under three days.
A day ago, in a post on her Instagram account, Perry wrote, “I’ve dreamed of going to space for 15 years and tomorrow that dream becomes a reality…..I am SO honoured to be alongside 5 other incredible and inspiring women as we become the first ever all female flight space crew!”
Named after astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American in space, the New Shepard vehicle is touted as Blue Origin’s “fully reusable, suborbital rocket system built for human flight from the beginning.”
The company claimed that the rocket has the capacity to accelerate to more than three times the speed of sound, taking passengers just above the Karman line, an invisible boundary at an altitude of 62 miles that is widely accepted as the edge of space.
The rocket is autonomous and designed to fly to and from suborbital space without a pilot on board.
Jeff Bezos the founder of Blue Origin, went to space on a New Shepard flight in July 2021, the spacecraft’s first mission with a crew. Actor William Shatner, who played Captain James T Kirk of the Starship Enterprise was among the first rocket of Jeff Bezos company in the year 2022 at the age of 90.
Meet the Blue Origin Spaceflight NS-31 Crew:
Katy Perry
Perry, a leading American singer, is one of the best-selling music artists of all time with over 115 billion streams. Aside from being a global pop superstar, Perry is an active advocate of many philanthropic causes, including as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
Lauren Sánchez
Sánchez is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, New York Times bestselling author, pilot, vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund, and mother of three. In 2016, Sánchez, who is also a licensed helicopter pilot, founded Black Ops Aviation, the first female-owned and operated aerial film and production company.
Aisha Bowe
Bowe is a former NASA rocket scientist, entrepreneur, and global STEM advocate. She is the CEO of STEMBoard, an engineering firm twice named to the Inc. 5000 list, and founder of LINGO, an edtech company aiming to equip one million students with essential tech skills.
Amanda Nguyễn
Nguyễn is a bioastronautics research scientist, who graduated from Harvard and conducted research at Harvard Center for Astrophysics, MIT, NASA, and International Institute for Astronautical Sciences. Nguyễn worked on the last NASA shuttle mission, STS-135, and the Kepler exoplanet mission.
Gayle King
King is an award-winning journalist, co-host of CBS Mornings, editor-at-large of Oprah Daily, and the host of Gayle King in the House on SiriusXM radio. In a career spanning decades, King has been recognized as an interviewer who has the ability to break through the noise and create meaningful conversations.
Kerianne Flynn
Flynn, who is known to have led a successful career in fashion and human resources, has spent the last decade in community-building through board service and nonprofit work with The Allen-Stevenson School, The High Line, and Hudson River Park.
