The space journey of a rocket operated by Jeff Bezos’ space tourism company, Blue Origin, has been completed.
What made this flight special was the inclusion of American pop star Katy Perry and Lauren Sánchez, who is the fiancée of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The rocket carried six women to the edge of space and safely returned them to Earth.
This mission was conducted using a reusable spacecraft named New Shepard, operated by Blue Origin. The rocket was launched today, Monday, from West Texas at 8:30 AM local time.
The fully civilian crew included American morning show host Gayle King, space engineer Ayesha Bowe, social activist and scientist Amanda Nguyen, and entrepreneur Kerenya Flynn.
Blue Origin called the mission historic, as it marked the first all-women spaceflight since the solo journey of Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova in 1963.
The suborbital flight lasted just over 10 minutes, during which the rocket reached an altitude of 100 kilometers. The passengers crossed the Kármán line—the invisible boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space.
During the flight, the crew experienced moments of weightlessness, floating freely after unbuckling their seatbelts.
Notably, the New Shepard spacecraft is fully automated and operates without a pilot.
Since 2021, Blue Origin has been offering short-duration space tourism flights. It has completed 10 successful missions, taking a total of 52 individuals to the edge of space.
Interestingly, Jeff Bezos himself was aboard the company’s first manned mission. Blue Origin gained massive attention when it started flying celebrities to space, such as actor William Shatner in 2021.
