A few weeks ago, Blue Origin announced its upcoming mission NS-31, in which six women will fly aboard the New Shepard rocket for 11 minutes. The flight will reach over 100 kilometers above Earth, crossing the Kármán line and allowing the crew to experience weightlessness before returning to Earth and landing with parachute assistance.
Blue Origin will launch its first female-only crew this Monday from its West Texas base at 8:30 am. Crew members include pop star Katy Perry, journalist and Jeff Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sánchez, and rocket scientist Aisha Bowe. The mission will last 11 minutes, and passengers will get to experience weightlessness.
The crew members are former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, scientist and civil rights activist Amanda Nguyễn, journalist and CBS host Gayle King, pop star Kary Perry, filmmaker Kerianne Flynn, and journalist and aviator Lauren Sánchez. Blue Origin has invited the public to watch the launch live via webcast on the social media platform X.
You can watch the live webcast here tomorrow at 7 a.m. CDT, hosted by Charissa Thompson, Kristin Fisher, and Ariane Cornell. pic.twitter.com/auKPJvtSl3 — Blue Origin (@blueorigin) April 14, 2025 In February, Blue Origin successfully launched its New Shepard rocket for an experiment to mimic the moon’s gravity in flight with positive results. This mission would be the company’s 31st mission to space, and 11th crewed flight. According to the BBC, the spacecraft is autonomous, and the crew will not need to operate the rocket manually. Passengers are usually trained by Blue Origin for over two days to guarantee safety and follow emergency protocols for this space tourism program. The commercial flight with Bezos’ company requires a $150,000 deposit for a seat, but the details of the cost of this mission have not been disclosed. The all-female crew will achieve a new record for the century, as the last all-female flight was performed by Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova aboard Vostok 6 over 60 years ago. They will also carry out a few scientific experiments, as reported by the New York Post. SpaceX also recently launched a commercial flight on April 1st, taking 4 civilians on an Earth orbit mission that lasted three days. The amateur astronauts returned to Earth safely a few days ago.
