Now Reading: Gayle King, Katy Perry, Aisha Bowe Soar in Historic All-Woman Blue Origin Space Flight
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Gayle King, Katy Perry, Aisha Bowe Soar in Historic All-Woman Blue Origin Space Flight
Gayle King, Katy Perry, Aisha Bowe Soar in Historic All-Woman Blue Origin Space Flight
An all-female crew, including CBS Mornings anchor Gayle King, pop superstar Katy Perry, and former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, made history on April 14, 2025, blasting off aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket for an 11-minute suborbital flight that crossed the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space at 100 kilometers above Earth.
The NS-31 mission, Blue Origin’s 11th human flight and first all-woman crew since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s 1963 solo mission, also featured philanthropist Lauren Sánchez, bioastronautics researcher Amanda Nguyen, and film producer Kerianne Flynn, marking a milestone in space tourism.
The six-woman team launched from Blue Origin’s West Texas facility at 9:07 AM CDT, reaching an altitude of 105 kilometers, where they experienced three minutes of weightlessness, flipping upside down and marveling at Earth’s curvature. Perry, 40, sang Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” during the descent, a moment King, 70, called “unforgettable” in a post-flight briefing. “Earth looked so quiet, so fragile,” said Sánchez, 55, fiancée of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, who greeted the crew after their capsule parachuted back to the desert at 9:18 AM. Bowe, 38, a STEM advocate and CEO of STEMBoard, dedicated her flight to inspiring young women, saying, “Representation matters—this shows what’s possible.”
The mission, watched by celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Orlando Bloom, drew praise and criticism. Blue Origin hailed the crew as “trailblazers,” noting their diverse backgrounds—King’s journalism, Perry’s 300 million record sales, Bowe’s aerospace expertise, Nguyen’s civil rights activism, Flynn’s filmmaking, and Sánchez’s pilot credentials. However, some, including actress Olivia Munn, criticized the $150,000-per-seat flight as “elitist,” citing environmental concerns, with each launch emitting 400 tons of CO2, per 2024 studies.
King hit back, calling detractors “haters” and emphasizing the mission’s symbolic weight. The flight, Blue Origin’s 31st overall, underscores its rivalry with Virgin Galactic, having flown 67 passengers since 2021, per company data. As space tourism grows, with 1,200 bookings reported industry-wide, the crew’s journey sparks debate over access and impact.
