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.
NS-31 just flew above the Kármán line. What is it?
During the roughly 10-minute flight, the six crew members of NS-31 flew above what is known as the Kármán line. But, what is it?
The Kármán line is an invisible boundary at an altitude of 62 miles above sea level that is widely accepted as the edge of space.
The boundary gets its name from Hungarian-American aerospace pioneer Theodore von Kármán.
Kármán was the first director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
When was the last all-female spaceflight?
Monday’s Blue Origin launch was the nation’s first all-female spaceflight.
The only other all-female crew was in 1963 when Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova launched by herself, becoming the first woman in space.
Tereshkova spent three days off Earth.
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.
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.
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.
Lauren Sanchez and Katy Perry show off ‘flattering and sexy’ space suits ahead of Blue Origin launch
Lauren Sanchez and Katy Perry show off ‘flattering and sexy’ Blue Origin space suits
CBS News host Gayle King says she 'can't even believe' what she saw
“I can’t even believe what I saw,” said CBS host Gayle King.
“To me, it’s such a reminder about how we need to do better, be better,” she said.
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