Katy Perry joins all-female mission to space
Katy Perry is one of the best selling artists of all time. (Getty)
After years of dominating the pop charts, singer Katy Perry is now tackling the final frontier as part of an all-female mission to space.
Perry is expected to travel on the Blue Origin rocket, owned by Jeff Bezos, at its next launch.
Perry will be joined on the mission by television host Gayle King, civil rights activist and astrophysicist Amanda Nguyen, movie producer Kerianne Flynn, NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, and Bezos’ own fianceé Lauren Sánchez.
The six women will be the 11th crewed mission on the New Shepard capsule, which is a fully reusable launch vehicle developed for space tourism by Bezos’ company Blue Origin.
The company said the mission will “challenge [the crew’s] perspectives of Earth”, “empower them” and “create lasting impact that will inspire generations”.
The 10-minute flight will mark the first time that no men have been part of a human-crewed spaceflight leaving Earth since Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo flight in 1963, Blue Origin said.
Perry, who is one of the best selling musical artists of all time, said that she hopes her journey into space will encourage her daughter – Daisy, whom she shares with Orlando Bloom – and others to “reach for the stars, literally and figuratively”.
Nguyen and Bowe both previously worked for NASA but left to seek out other endeavours. Bowe is now the chief executive of the engineering company STEMBoard and the founder of Lingo, an initiative to provide technology education and equipment to students.
Nguyen worked on the final space shuttle mission in 2011 as an intern and was recently nominated for the Nobel peace prize and Time’s person of the year due to her work as an advocate for survivors of sexual violence.
Blue Origin described Nguyen as the first Vietnamese and south-east Asian female astronaut, saying that her flight into space would be “a symbol of reconciliation between the US and Vietnam, and will highlight science as a tool for peace”.
The New Shepard capsule has already flown 52 people into space, notably taking them above the Karman line, which is internationally recognised as the boundary of space.
Bezos himself was aboard the New Shepard capsule back in July 2021, describing the experience as “the best day ever”, while Star Trek actor William Shatner and former NFL player Michael Strahan have also been passengers on the capsule previously.
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