Blue Origin flight live updates: Katy Perry and star-studded crew return from brief space launch
The first all-female trip to space in more than six decades launched from West Texas on Monday morning
Katy Perry and five other women successfully launched into space on Monday on the first all-female mission in more than six decades.
The crew lifted off on board an autonomous rocket made by Blue Origin, the private space firm owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
“I don’t really have words for it,” the billionaire’s fiancée Lauren Sanchez said in an interview following the flight. “Earth looked just so quiet.”
“It is the highest high and it is surrender to the unknown,” said Perry. “I couldn’t recommend this experience more.”
Perry and Sanchez were joined by CBS News host Gayle King, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, and film producer Kerianne Flynn.
The only other all-female crew in 64 years of human spaceflight took place in 1963.
The rocket lifted off as part of Blue Origin mission NS-31 at 8:30 a.m. local time. The craft flew through space for around four minutes before floating back down to Earth, with the entire journey taking a little over 10 minutes.
When in space, Perry sang the song “What a Wonderful World.”
“It was a feeling of joy. It was a feeling of gratefulness,” Sanchez added.
Lauren Sanchez is overcome with emotion speaking moments after stepping out of the capsule
“I don’t think you can describe it. It was, like, quiet, but then also really alive. You look at [the Earth] and you’re like, ‘We’re all in this together.’ We’re so connected. More connected than you realize,” Jeff Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sanchez said. “All these things that divide us but we’re not.”
When asked how she was feeling, Sanchez said: “Complete and utter joy and gratefulness. It makes me want to come back and hug everyone…we’re in this together. I didn’t expect to be this emotional.”
Gayle King says Katy Perry sang 'What a Wonderful World' while up there
CBS News host Gayle King said singer Katy Perry sang the song “What a Wonderful World” in space.
The song was first recorded by American trumpeter and vocalist Louise Armstrong.
CBS News host Gayle King says she 'can't even believe' what she saw
“I can’t even believe what I saw,” said CBS News host Gayle King.
“To me, it’s such a reminder about how we need to do better, be better,” she said.
Singer Katy Perry said she feels 'connected to love' after spaceflight
Singer Katy Perry says that the experience made her feel “super connected to love.”
“To go to space is incredible and I wanted to model courage and worthiness and fearlessness,” she said.
See it: Katy Perry kisses the ground after arriving back from space
Lauren Sanchez gets emotional talking about history of US spaceflight
“Alan Shepard did the same exact flight and he became the first American in space,” Jeff Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sanchez said in a post-flight interview.
“And, six women just did the same flight that he did,” she noted, becoming emotional.
Alan Shepard became the first American and the second man in space on May 5, 1961.
Katy Perry sang ‘What a Wonderful World’ in space, Gayle King reveals
What Katy Perry sang in space revealed by Gayle King
Images show historic New Shepard rocket launch
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