Katy Perry, Gayle King, and Lauren Sánchez take part in Blue Origin’s first all-female spaceflight — a powerful and emotional 10-minute journey that made history.
Katy Perry, Gayle King, and Lauren Sánchez just made history — and they did it 62 miles above Earth. The trio joined an all-female crew aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket on Monday for a brief but powerful trip into space. Lasting just over 10 minutes, the flight marked the first all-women mission of its kind since 1963, and featured moments of reflection, laughter, and even a little singing from Katy Perry herself.
Blue Origin’s 11th human flight — and perhaps its most star-studded — launched Monday morning from Launch Site One in West Texas. The mission, dubbed NS-31, captured global attention for more than just its famous passengers. It was the first time since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s 1963 solo orbit that an all-female team had gone to space together.
Katy Perry, pop icon and Super Bowl halftime performer, didn’t waste any time turning the journey into creative fuel. After floating in zero gravity and entertaining crewmates with a few bars of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World,” she promised: “100% I’ll be writing a song about this.”
Also on board: broadcast legend Gayle King, visibly moved by the experience. “It’s really quiet and peaceful,” she said afterward. “You look down on the planet and think: That’s where we came from? We need to do better.” Gayle King, who has a well-known fear of flying, said the launch helped her conquer fears she never thought she would — and joked she might finally get her ears pierced now.
Lauren Sánchez, journalist and pilot (and fiancée to Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos), assembled the dream team for this mission. She described Earth from above as “quiet” but “really alive,” reflecting emotionally on the unity and fragility of life. She also quipped that going to space was a bold way to prove her love: “If I didn’t come back, that would be a bummer for me.”
The rest of the pioneering passengers included:
Aisha Bowe, former NASA rocket scientist and STEM advocate, who became the first Bahamian person in space. She brought postcards from students and conducted plant and human physiology experiments on board.
Amanda Nguyễn, bioastronautics researcher and civil rights activist, who carried a hospital bracelet from her assault as a personal healing gesture. “No dream is too wild,” she said in a message to fellow survivors.
Kerianne Flynn, film producer and philanthropist, fulfilled a childhood dream as she gazed at the moon. “Everyone I loved was standing down there looking up at me,” she said tearfully.
The New Shepard rocket — named after astronaut Alan Shepard — is fully reusable and designed for suborbital trips. On this flight, the capsule hit a peak altitude of 350,449 feet, spending a few precious minutes in weightlessness before parachuting back to Earth. All six crew members emerged emotional and triumphant, with Perry and King kneeling to touch the soil.
In Katy Perry’s case, the flight was both literal and symbolic. She brought a daisy in honor of her daughter, Daisy Dove, calling the flower a symbol of strength and Earth’s natural beauty. “Daisies grow through any condition,” she said. “They’re everywhere. They’re strong. They’re God’s smile.”
As fans await the space-inspired song she’s now promised, one thing is clear: this mission wasn’t just a milestone in aerospace — it was a celebration of empowerment, possibility, and the enduring magic of looking back at our planet from the stars.
