Blue Origin, the space startup founded and funded by Jeff Bezos, launched its first all-female crew into space on Monday. The flight took six women, including Bezos’s fiancée Lauren Sánchez, broadcast journalist Gayle King, and pop star Katy Perry, to space and back on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.
The trip took about 11 minutes, with the crew experiencing four minutes of weightlessness. The rocket reached a maximum height of 62 miles above Earth to the Kármán line, an invisible boundary that defines the end of Earth’s atmosphere and the start of space, before descending and landing in the Texas desert.
“I don’t really have words for it,” an emotional Sánchez told Blue Origin in a webcast after the flight. “I’m so proud of this crew.”
Sánchez said that she felt “joy and complete togetherness” following the flight.
“I hope that more people get to see this,” she said.
Perry told Blue Origin that the mission was about “appreciating Earth” and that this experience was only “second to being a mom.”
“It is surrender to the unknown,” Perry said. “I couldn’t recommend this experience more.”
Related: Watch Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Launch Its New Rocket Into Orbit: ‘This Is Our First Flight’
The flight launched at 9:30 a.m. ET from Blue Origin’s launch site in Van Horn, Texas, and marked the first time an all-female crew has been to space since 1963. It’s Blue Origin’s 11th flight with a human crew.
Crew members also included former NASA scientist Aisha Bowe, producer Kerianne Flynn, and bioastronautics research scientist Amanda Nguyen.
Blue Origin has offered space tourism flights for years, since 2021. The startup’s website reveals that in order to reserve a seat, customers have to pay a $150,000 deposit. It’s unclear if the crew on Monday’s flight paid for the experience.
Watch the liftoff here:
Read the full article here
