An all-female crew accomplished a brief spaceflight on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket and capsule, the 31st such flight since its maiden flight in July 2021. The crew was a mixture of celebrities, including Katy Perry, Gayle King, and Lauren Sanchez, and scientists, such as Aisha Bowe, a former NASA rocket scientist, Amanda Nguyen, a bioastronautics research scientist, and Kerianne Flynn, a film producer. On the ground celebrities such as Oprah, Kris Jenner and her daughter Khloé Kardashian, Orlando Bloom and Jeff Bezos watched on.
The weightlessness on the nine-minute flight to the Karman line, considered the dividing line between Earth’s atmosphere and space, lasted only four minutes. But the emotional impact of the flight was clear.
Full of adrenaline, most of the women were moved to tears in interviews after landing.
“It was a feeling of joy,” said Sanchez, fiancée to Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, who was on the first flight in July 2021.
Perry sang “What a Wonderful World” inside the capsule. “This is all for the benefit of Earth,” she said. “This experience is second to being a mom.”
“I will never be the same,” added NASA rocket scientist Bowe. “There are no boundaries, no borders, just the Earth. I picked the right dream.”
King, who is terrified of flying, said that “G-force” was difficult. The CBS morning anchor, who declined to be called an “astronaut” after only two days of training, noted the sense of sisterhood in the capsule and hopes the short flight will inspire other women toward space.
The last all-female space mission happened in 1963, when Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova undertook the solo Vostok 6 mission to become the first woman in space.
Despite its brevity, Blue Origin’s 31st flight is noteworthy because it introduced the first set of uniforms developed for females. “Usually, you know, these suits are made for a man,” Sanchez told The New York Times. “Then they get tailored to fit a woman.”
Five months before the flight, Sanchez reached out to Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim, cofounders of Monse, and also creative directors at Oscar de la Renta. Each crew member had 3-D body scans made of their physique for the made-to-measure suits. “Simplicity was important, and comfort, and fit,” Garcia said. “But we also wanted something that was a little dangerous, like a motocross outfit.”
The flight attracted its share of critics. Model Emily Ratajkowski called it “beyond parody,” adding on TikTok: “You say that you care about Mother Earth, and it’s about Mother Earth, and you go up in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that is single-handedly destroying the planet,” Ratajkowski posted. “Look at the state of the world and think about how many resources went into putting these women into space. For what? I’m disgusted.”
“There was nothing frivolous about what we did,” King said. “I’m very disappointed and very saddened by it [the criticism]. And I also say this, what it’s doing to inspire other women and young girls, please don’t ignore that.”
