Blue Origin’s all-female crew completes space mission with Katy Perry, Lauren Sanchez, Gayle King on board
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket took off Monday with its star-studded, all-female crew. But there was one thing Katy Perry wouldn't do in space.
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Katy Perry has safely landed back down to earth after she became the first pop star to travel to space.
She was part of an all female crew that took off in space capsule on Monday, US time, that briefly launched into the atmosphere.
Perry, author Lauren Sanchez, TV presenter Gayle King, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, former rocket scientist Aisha Bowe and filmmaker Kerianne Flynn few in Amazon owner Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin spacecraft. Ms Sanchez is engaged to Mr Bezos.
Perry said she would sing in space, but the song she finally chose was a surprise to her fellow riders, singing Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World.
Meanwhile, King said she “can’t accept” that she is an astronaut. But now she has achieved a flight in space, she might will have the courage to do something even scarier: pierce her ears.
The CBS presenter’s close friend Oprah Winfrey sobbed as the Blue Origin capsule touched down.
Song Perry wouldn’t sing in space
There were four minutes of weightlessness during the rocket’s 11 minute journey, from the Launch Site One in west Texas. During that brief period, the six women joined together to say “take up space,” a message about female empowerment.
Celebrities looked on including Perry’s husband Orlando Bloom and Kris and Kendall Jenner.
Perry and King both kissed the earth upon their return.
But viewers turned on Perry in particular, turning on the singer.
“Oh dramatic. You were there for 20 seconds miss girl,” one person wrote on X.
“Her kissing the ground as if she wasn’t gone for two seconds,” another added.
“Girl get the f**k up,” another wrote.
A fourth commented: “It was only a 10-minute flight PLEASE.”
Another called her a “drama queen”, while another said it was “nothing but a photo op and a mockery of real space, travel, and actual astronauts.”
The pop star gave the flight a review of “10 out of 10” adding that she would “100 per cent” write a song about the experience.
“I feel super connected to love,” she said as she emerged from the capsule.
“I think this experience has shown me you never know how much love you have to give, and how loved you are”.
She said there was a “collective energy” from the all-female riders and it was about “making space for future women”.
Perry had promised to sing in space. But King said the passengers had expected her to sing one of her hits.
“We’d been asking her to sing all the time, and she wouldn’t,” King divulged.
“And the best part was when we got back in our seats after zero G, Katy sang (Louis Armstrong’s) What a Wonderful World.”
Perry said she sang that song rather than, say, her mega hit Firework, because: “It’s not about me, it’s about us”.
Blue Origin has released video from inside the capsule which showed the six passengers flying around the cabin, looking out of the window and cheering.
Perry held up a daisy in honour of her daughter Daisy. She also revealed the set list for her upcoming tour which was written on a cardboard butterfly.
Bowe held up a flag of The Bahamas as she became the first Bahamian to go into space.
King: ‘I felt like a moose’
When asked how she felt being an astronaut, King said: “I still can’t accept that word”.
Indeed, some commentators have suggested the group were passengers in a spacecraft more than working astronauts. But there is also no strict definition of the term.
“It’s oddly quiet and peaceful when you get up there,” King said.
“You look down at the planet and it’s a reminder about how we need to do better and be better.
“It’s so nasty and so vitriolic nowadays”.
King said despite all the training about how to free herself from the seat to experience zero gravity and strap herself back in again she said he looked like a “freaking moose”.
“The training was so good. We were set up for success, and it went exactly as they told us it was going to every boom that you heard”.
The presenter said going into space meant she could move onto facing another fear,
“Well, I stepped way out of my comfort zone. I might now get my ears pierced. I’ve always been afraid (of that)”.
Oprah sobs
King’s friend Oprah Winfrey was there to watch the spectacle.
“I’ve never been more proud of my friend than today, because this is bigger than just going to space,” she said.
“For her, who, anytime we’re on a flight she’s in anybody’s lap if there’s the slightest bit of turbulence, has real, real, real anxiety flying, this is overcoming a wall of fear, a barrier, I think this is going to be cathartic in so many ways for her.
“None of us will ever forget this day.”
Winfrey was seen sobbing during the flight.
Despite the brief nature of the trip the women can now say they’ve crossed the boundary into space as they crossed the “Karmon Line” and reached the maximum height of 100km above the ground.
However, fears did emerge for the star’s safety after it was revealed that in 2021 a group of employees shared their concerns with the company about the safety of the capsule Perry will be flying in.
In a letter published by Business Insider in 2021, a group of 21 current and former employees at Blue Origin expressed their concerns about the rocket’s safety and insisted they would not travel on it.
“In the opinion of an engineer who has signed on to this essay, ‘Blue Origin has been lucky that nothing has happened so far,” read the letter. “Many of this essay’s authors say they would not fly on a Blue Origin vehicle.”
Space flight is one of the most dangerous methods of travel, with around one per cent of flights in the US resulting in a death.
At the time, Blue Origin released a statement insisting in the safety of their space program.
“We stand by our safety record and believe that New Shepard is the safest space vehicle ever designed or built,” the company said.
Previously the company’s flights were grounded in August of 2022 following an engine mishap.
Perry’s trip is the 11th human flight for the Blue Origin program, which has taken passengers, including the company’s billionaire founder Jeff Bezos, to space since 2021.
Blue Origin already holds a NASA contract to build a lunar lander for one of the upcoming Artemis missions, which will return Americans to the Moon.
Earlier this week, Perry shared that she felt like she had numerous signs from the universe that said she was on the right path for choosing to embark on the journey to space.
She said: “When I was invited to come on this voyage, I looked up the capsule. On the very front of it is the outline in the shape of a feather and when I saw that it was like a total confirmation because my mum has always called me feather.
“And so I’m in space training today and there’s a lot to digest. We’re almost finished with the day and they showed us the capsule and we run simulations in another capsule and tested the noise and what to expect and all these different things and they reveal the capsule name.
“The capsule’s name is Tortoise. A wave, just the most energetic wave, just shot through my body. And I was like, ‘What? This capsule’s name is Tortoise?’
“My mum calls me two nicknames. Feather and tortoise. What are the chances that I’m going to space on a rocket in a capsule with my symbol, the feather, called Tortoise?”
She added: “There are no coincidences, and I’m just so grateful for these confirmations and so grateful that I feel like something bigger than me is steering the ship.”
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Originally published as Blue Origin’s all-female crew completes space mission with Katy Perry, Lauren Sanchez, Gayle King on board
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