Blue Origin rocket carrying Katy Perry and all-female crew reaches edge of space, returns safely
Pop star Katy Perry and five other women launched into space on a Blue Origin rocket and successfully returned to Earth on Monday, marking the first all-female spaceflight in more than 60 years.
The crew lifted off from West Texas at 9:31 a.m. ET (1331 GMT) and traveled to the edge of space, where they experienced a brief period of weightlessness before returning to Earth in a flight lasting around 11 minutes, according to a live broadcast by Blue Origin, the space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos.
The spaceflight was a high-profile success for Bezos’ New Shepard launch vehicle, which has been developed for space tourism.
The six-person crew also included Bezos’ fiancée, Lauren Sanchez; CBS host Gayle King; former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe; scientist Amanda Nguyen; and film producer Kerianne Flynn.
King said that when the crew returned to their seats after weightlessness, Perry sang the Louis Armstrong song “What a Wonderful World.”
“I feel super connected to love,” Katy Perry said after landing back on Earth.
Perry was holding a daisy, a flower she took into space to remind her of her daughter, Daisy.
Among celebrities in attendance at the launchpad were a tearful Oprah Winfrey, a close friend of King, and show business personalities Kris Jenner and Khloe Kardashian.
It was the first all-female spaceflight since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova—the first woman in space—orbited Earth during a nearly three-day solo flight in 1963.
Blue Origin does not disclose the average cost of a seat on one of its rockets. On its website, the company says potential passengers have to pay $150,000 in the form of a refundable deposit to start the “order process.”
In 2021, the company revealed the highest bid for a seat on its New Shepard spacecraft was $28 million. That same year, “Star Trek” actor William Shatner flew free of charge as a guest of Blue Origin.
In 2018, Reuters reported the company was planning to charge passengers at least $200,000 for the ride.
Blue Origin says on its website it aims to radically reduce the cost of access to space, with its rockets designed for reusability.
Loizos Heracleous, a professor of strategy and organization at Warwick Business School in Britain, estimates each launch of the New Shepard costs between $1 to $3 million.
“Even ignoring development cost, there are six seats, so each passenger would have to pay around half a million USD for this to be a financially viable ongoing business,” Heracleous said. “It will take a long, long time before space tourism can be a financially sustainable business available to the public at large.”
