Pop superstar Katy Perry will be part of a historic mission to the edge of space, joining an all-female crew aboard a Blue Origin rocket set to launch on Monday, April 14.
The suborbital flight, organized by Blue Origin, the private aerospace company founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, will take off from the company’s launch facility in Van Horn, Texas, at 9:30 a.m. ET.
Alongside Perry, the six-woman crew will include Gayle King, co-host of CBS Mornings; Lauren Sánchez, former journalist and Bezos’ fiancée; Aisha Bowe, former NASA rocket scientist; Amanda Nguyen, bioastronautics researcher and civil rights advocate; and Kerianne Flynn, film producer.
This mission is a groundbreaking event, marking the first all-female spaceflight crew since Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space in 1963.
The crew will travel aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket, a fully autonomous, suborbital launch system named after astronaut Alan Shepard. The flight will last approximately 10 minutes, reaching an altitude beyond the Kármán line—the internationally recognized boundary of space, 62 miles above sea level. Once at apogee, the crew will experience several minutes of weightlessness before descending under parachutes for a soft landing in the West Texas desert.
This launch marks Blue Origin’s 11th human flight and further advances the company’s space tourism program, which has previously hosted high-profile passengers like actor William Shatner, former NFL player Michael Strahan, and Laura Shepard Churchley, daughter of Alan Shepard.
Although Blue Origin has not confirmed whether the celebrity participants purchased their seats or were invited, tickets for New Shepard flights are estimated to cost several hundred thousand dollars.
More than just a headline-making event, this mission is a significant step for gender representation in the space industry. By bringing together women from diverse fields—entertainment, journalism, science, and activism—the flight sends a powerful message about inclusivity and the expanding opportunities in private space exploration.
