The first all-female crewed flight since Valentina Tereshkova’s groundbreaking solo mission in 1963 successfully took off aboard a Blue Origin rocket on April 14, 2025.
This historic all-female flight, which lasted around 11 minutes, included pop star Katy Perry and Lauren Sanchez, fiancée of billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin.
The 11th crewed New Shepard flight, known as NS-31, took off from Launch Site One in West Texas on April 14, 2025, with the launch window opening at 08:30 local time (CDT).
“This NS-31 crew is embarking on a mission to transform their perspectives of Earth and create a lasting impact that inspires future generations,” Blue Origin said.
Perry and Sanchez were joined by former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics research scientist Amanda Nguyễn, journalist, co-host of CBS Mornings Gayle King, and American film producer Kerianne Flynn.
Ahead of the launch, Perry took to TikTok to tell fans: “I’ve dreamt of going to space for 15 years and that dream becomes a reality,” Katy Perry told fans on “I am so honored to be alongside five other incredible and inspiring women as we become the first ever all female flight space crew.”
“Hard to believe that this incredible work of innovation will be taking us above the Kármán line,” Sanchez said in a post on Instagram . “Thank you to the entire Blue Origin team for making this happen.”
The crew crossed the Kármán line, the globally recognized boundary of space located more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) above Earth. Additionally, the New Shepard astronauts travelled to space at speeds exceeding three times the speed of sound.
Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos in 2000, began commercial operations in 2021, taking tourists and celebrities into space. The spacecraft operates autonomously, meaning no pilots are needed, and the crew does not control the vehicle manually. The crew capsule safely descends using parachutes.
The New Shepard rocket has previously carried Hollywood actor William Shatner, as well as Bezos himself, who participated in the company’s inaugural human spaceflight.
On April 28, 2001, US entrepreneur Dennis Tito made history as the first space tourist.
