Pop star Katy Perry has been launched into space as part of the sub-orbital spaceflight mission, operated by Blue Origin’s NS-31. The pop star is part of the six-woman crew flying to space on Jeff Bezos’ New Shepard NS-31 mission. It was organised by his partner, journalist Lauren Sanchez, who will also join the crew with former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, and film producer Kerianne Flynn.
The New Shepard rocket will take off from its base site, Launch Site One, in West Texas. The flight took off at 2:30 pm BST (8:30 am local time) and will last for a total duration of 11 minutes. It will take the crew 65 miles above Earth. It will pass the Kármán line, which marks the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space, located 62 miles above the Earth.
According to Lauren, the mission will “challenge [the crew’s] perspectives of Earth” and “create a lasting impact that will inspire generations”. This will be the 11th human flight for the New Shepard programme, which carries customers to the edge of the space. The price of a seat can cost between £157,029 to £235,544 per person.
On April 13, Katy took to Instagram to share her excitement: “I’ve dreamt of going to space for 15 years and tomorrow that dream becomes a reality.” The singer hailed the “incredible and inspiring” women who have joined her on a flight into space. “I am so honoured to be alongside five other incredible and inspiring women as we become the first ever all-female flight space crew!” she added.
The singer also shared a video of the capsule the crew had been “training in for the last few days,” revealing her call name is Feather – a nickname from her mother to her. Katy also said that she plans to “sing in space”, explaining where her other “astronaut girly friends” will sit in the spacecraft. She said: “I do believe (is happening) because believe your dreams and saying that is actually how you make our dreams come true.”
Katy and the other five women will become the first all-female space crew since the Soviet Union launched Valentina Tereshkova into orbit, becoming the first woman to solo-travel solo in 1963. 19 years later, Svetlana Savitskaya went into space in 1982, making her the second woman to fly in space, and the first woman to perform a spacewalk.
In a recent interview with Elle, the singer expressed her excitement, saying she would dedicate the trip to her four-year-old daughter Daisy to show other little girls that science can be “glam.” She also revealed that as soon as she got the invite, the first thing that came across her mind was: “What am I going to wear?”
Katy said: “But seriously, I have wanted to go to space for almost 20 years. I was investigating all of the possible commercial options. Even when Blue Origin was first talking about commercial travel to space, I was like, ‘Sign me up! I’m first in line’.”
Katy said she was speechless when she had received an invite, and didn’t believe it until she saw a picture of the space pod. The singer also explained that the front of the pod is a feather, which is her mother’s nickname to her.
Each New Shepard passenger has a three-pound weight limit on what they are allowed to bring to space. Lauren Amanda, Gayle King, Kerianne Flynn named what they would bring into space. These items included photographs, an Apollo 12 flag, stuffed animals and shells from the island in Malaysia. Katy said she planned to bring something with life in it, “to remind us how precious the Earth is,” though she didn’t specify exactly what it was.
The surprising news of Katy Perry heading into space left fans flooding the comment sections with all kinds of messages. While some showed their excitement and support for the singer making such a powerful move as the first pop star to travel to space, others began throwing jokes at what could be a part two of her hit song, E.T.
Fans took to X (formerly known as Twitter ), with one saying: “That unemployed friend on a Tuesday morning,” and a second one joking using a reference to one of her songs: “Dark Horse gonna turn into Dark Space.”
A third one added: “She better perform E.T,” with a fourth fan wondering: “And if she stays stuck up there what’ll happen to my Lifetimes tour ticket?” A fifth user simply said: “She should stay there.”
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