An all-women crew is about to fly to space, carrying high-profile names including singer Katy Perry, journalist Gayle King and bioastronautics research scientist Amanda Nguyen.
“If you had told me I’d be part of the first all-female crew in space, I would have believed you. Nothing was beyond my imagination as a child,” Perry said, following the announcement.
“I am motivated more than ever to be an example for my daughter that women should take up space (pun intended). That’s why this opportunity is so incredible — so that I can show all of the youngest & most vulnerable among us to reach for the stars, literally and figuratively.”
King spoke on CBS Mornings about her feelings leading up to the historic flight, saying she’s “so afraid” but also “so excited”, and noted that speaking to the rest of the women on the crew has really inspired her to dream big and take on this opportunity.
The six-person crew aboard Blue Origin will also include Aisha Bowe, a former NASA rocket scientist and CEO of STEMBoard, and film producer Kerianne Flynn.
According to Blue Origin, pilot and journalist Lauren Sánchez “brought the crew together” and will be aboard the flight as well. Sánchez is vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund and engaged to the company’s founder, Jeff Bezos.
“I really see this group as explorers, and storytellers, each of us about to be changed by a remarkable view of our beautiful planet. The countdown starts now,” Sánchez said about the all-female crew.
This is the first all-women space flight to take place since the Soviet Union’s Valentina Tereshkova’s solo mission in 1963, according to Blue Origin.
In another first, Nguyen, who was a 2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee for her advocacy for sexual violence survivors, will be the first Vietnamese and Southeast Asian woman astronaut.
The mission is known as NS-31, and it will be New Shepard’s 11th flight carrying humans past the Kármán line, an area 62 miles (100 kilometers) above Earth’s surface that is widely recognized as the altitude at which outer space begins.
There’s no specific launch date set, but Blue Origin has said it will take place in spring 2025.
The number of women having been to space is increasing, as space tourism grows. In November, Blue Origin’s NS-28 mission carried the 100th woman into space- Emily Calandrelli– a Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineer and TV host known as “Space Gal”.