Blue Origin To Launch First All-Female Crew Into Space, Including Katy Perry And Lauren Sánchez

Jeff Bezos’ rocket company Blue Origin will launch its 11th human flight, the NS-31 mission, today from its West Texas base at 08:30 am local time. The singer Katy Perry and the journalist Lauren Sánchez—Bezo’s fiancée—are part of the company’s first all-female mission.

A few weeks ago, Blue Origin announced its upcoming mission NS-31, in which six women will fly aboard the New Shepard rocket for 11 minutes. The flight will reach over 100 kilometers above Earth, crossing the Kármán line and allowing the crew to experience weightlessness before returning to Earth and landing with parachute assistance.

The crew members are former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, scientist and civil rights activist Amanda Nguyễn, journalist and CBS host Gayle King, pop star Kary Perry, filmmaker Kerianne Flynn, and journalist and aviator Lauren Sánchez. Blue Origin has invited the public to watch the launch live via webcast on the social media platform X.

The NS-31 crew is certified ‘ready to fly to space’ by CrewMember 7 Sarah Knights. The launch window opens tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. CDT / 13:30 UTC.

You can watch the live webcast here tomorrow at 7 a.m. CDT, hosted by Charissa Thompson, Kristin Fisher, and Ariane Cornell. pic.twitter.com/auKPJvtSl3

— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) April 14, 2025

In February, Blue Origin successfully launched its New Shepard rocket for an experiment to mimic the moon’s gravity in flight with positive results. This mission would be the company’s 31st mission to space, and 11th crewed flight.

According to the BBC, the spacecraft is autonomous, and the crew will not need to operate the rocket manually. Passengers are usually trained by Blue Origin for over two days to guarantee safety and follow emergency protocols for this space tourism program. The commercial flight with Bezos’ company requires a $150,000 deposit for a seat, but the details of the cost of this mission have not been disclosed.

The all-female crew will achieve a new record for the century, as the last all-female flight was performed by Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova aboard Vostok 6 over 60 years ago. They will also carry out a few scientific experiments, as reported by the New York Post.

SpaceX also recently launched a commercial flight on April 1st, taking 4 civilians on an Earth orbit mission that lasted three days. The amateur astronauts returned to Earth safely a few days ago.