Among the six members are pop star Katy Perry, journalist Gayle King and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos’s fiancee Lauren Sanchez|@blueorigin|X
Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin announced that its upcoming spring flight will feature its first all-female crew of six, including celebrities like singer Katy Perry, journalist Gayle King and businesswoman Lauren Sanchez, who is engaged to Bezos.
The other three members of the historic crew include aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe, activist Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn. Sanchez, who is also a pilot, helped organize the mission.
While no exact launch date was given, the mission—NS-31—will be Blue Origin’s 11th human flight. As part of the New Shepard program, it will be an 11-minute trip beyond the Karman line, the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space.
Though NASA has trained 61 female astronauts, NS-31 could be the first all-women spaceflight since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo mission in 1963.
As Blue Origin competes with Elon Musk’s SpaceX in space tourism, the company plans to lay off 1,400 people, about 10% of its workforce.