Blue Origin Launches Historic All-Female Crew April 14

Pop star Katy Perry and five other notable women are set to embark on a historic all-female spaceflight aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket on Monday. This marks the first female-only crewed mission since 1963, with the journey lasting approximately 10 minutes and reaching just above the Kármán line, the recognized boundary of space. The crew includes Gayle King, Lauren Sánchez, Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, and Kerianne Flynn. Blue Origin's New Shepard, designed for suborbital trips, will allow the crew to experience weightlessness before their capsule returns to Earth. The launch will occur from Blue Origin's site in West Texas, with the capsule reaching a peak altitude before descending under parachutes. The mission, known as NS-31, will be Blue Origin's 11th crewed launch and is part of the company's expanding space tourism efforts. The specific cost of tickets for this voyage remains undisclosed, though similar experiences with competitors like Virgin Galactic run approximately $650,000 per seat.