This spring, six women are taking a groundbreaking flight into space via Blue Origin, the American spaceflight company of billionaire entrepreneur and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Heading to space on Blue Orgin’s history-making NS-31 mission includes female titans of their respective industries. CBS Mornings host Gayle King and nine-time Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping singer Katy Perry will be on board. Former aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe and Noble Peace Prize nominee Amanda Nguyen – both former NASA workers – will also ride into outer space. This Changes Everything (2018) film producer Kerianne Flynn adds to those chosen for the awe-inspiring nearly 11-minute-long spaceflight.
Bestselling author, journalist, and Vice Chair of the Bezos Earth Fund, Lauren Sánchez, will round out the all-women space crew. Sánchez – Bezos’ fiancée and a licensed helicopter pilot – is the one who picked the women for Blue Origin’s forthcoming ascent.
What Else Is There To Know About The Upcoming All-Women Blue Origin Flight?
In late February, Blue Origin announced the NS-31 mission and all-women flight. The journey will occur via the company’s New Shepard program.
As likely one of the most uniquely curated space crews ever, the group includes a former NASA rocket scientist, a 13-time Grammy-nominated pop star, celebrated journalists, and passionate advocates for numerous causes. Moreover, the multifaceted leaders include businesswomen and mothers.
Blue Origin states that the launch will occur sometime in Spring 2025. It will be the first women-only trip into space since cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s 71-hour solo spaceflight in June 1963. Nguyen’s participation makes her the first woman astronaut of Vietnamese and Southeast Asian descent. Notably, Bowe is a Blue Origin trailblazer in her own right, being the first Black woman to venture into space via the Bezos-owned company.
To date, Blue Origin’s New Shepard program has taken only 52 other humans above the Kármán line, which the globe recognizes as the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space. The NS-31 mission will be the New Shepard program’s 11th human flight and 31st general launch into space.
“New Shepard astronauts ascend toward space at more than three times the speed of sound,” details Blue Origin. “They pass the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space 62 miles (100 kilometers) above Earth, before unbuckling to float weightless and gaze at our planet. The crew returns gently under parachutes, forever changed.”
