MUMBAI: Pop icon Katy Perry made history on Monday as the most high-profile member of an all-woman spaceflight, blasting off aboard one of Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rockets. The “Firework” and “California Gurls” singer joined five other women—among them Bezos’s fiancée Lauren Sanchez—for the sub-orbital journey that reached more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) above Earth.
The launch took place around 8:30 a.m. local time from West Texas, with the fully automated New Shepard rocket lifting off vertically. Mid-flight, the crew capsule separated from the booster before descending back to Earth, slowed by parachutes and a retro-thruster. The mission lasted roughly 10 minutes from launch to landing, offering passengers a brief experience of weightlessness beyond the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space.
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This flight marked the first all-woman space crew since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo mission in 1963, and the 11th human spaceflight for Blue Origin. The company, which has been offering space tourism for several years, does not disclose the price of tickets aboard its New Shepard spacecraft.
Joining Perry and Sanchez were TV journalist Gayle King, former NASA aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe, film producer Kerianne Flynn, and Amanda Nguyen, a civil rights activist and founder of Rise, a nonprofit advocating for sexual assault survivors.
Speaking to Elle magazine ahead of the mission, Perry said her journey was deeply personal: “I’m doing this for my daughter Daisy, to show her there are no limits to her dreams.” She added, “I can’t wait to see the inspiration in her eyes when she sees that rocket take off and realizes her mom went to space.”
In an Instagram video, Perry revealed an emotional coincidence: the capsule she flew in was named the “Tortoise” and adorned with a feather—both childhood nicknames from her parents. “There are no coincidences,” she said. “I feel like something bigger than me is steering the ship.”
Media legend Oprah Winfrey was on-site to support her close friend Gayle King, adding even more star power to the occasion. The mission follows the trend of Blue Origin enlisting notable personalities—like William Shatner—to maintain public fascination with commercial space travel amid growing competition in the private space race.
For Perry, who first skyrocketed to fame in 2008 with her breakout hit “I Kissed a Girl,” this flight was more than a thrill—it was a message. A message about empowerment, possibility, and breaking new ground, one launch at a time.
