Katy Perry and all-female crew land safely after being blasted into space on Blue Origin rocket
The crew was chosen by Lauren Sanchez, and included TV presenter Gayle King, former Nasa rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, astronaut and activist Amanda Nguyen and movie producer Kerianne Flynn
Katy Perry and five other women launched into space on a Blue Origin rocket and successfully returned to Earth on Monday, marking the first all-female spaceflight in more than 60 years.
Jeff Bezos’s partner Lauren Sanchez was also onboard, along with CBS Mornings presenter Gayle King, former Nasa rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, and movie producer Kerianne Flynn.
As celebrities such as Khloe Kardashian and Oprah Winfrey looked on from an observation deck at the site in west Texas, the crew of six blasted off from Blue Origin’s launchpad and returned around 11 minutes later.
“I don’t think I realized how emotional it was going to be,” Kardashian said.
Winfrey wept as she saw her friend Gayle King fly at almost 2,000 miles per hour, experiencing zero gravity. Inside the capsule, the new astronauts could be heard exclaiming at their view of the moon and the experience of floating around the capsule.
After being met by a ground crew that included Bezos, the six women then left the ship. Pop star Perry raised a daisy to the sky as she left the capsule before kissing the ground.
Sanchez said: “It was, like, quiet, but then also really alive. You look at [the Earth] and you’re like, ‘We’re all in this together.’ We’re so connected. More connected than you realize,” she said. “All these things that divide us, but we’re not.”
Asked how she was feeling, Sanchez said: “Complete and utter joy and gratefulness. It makes me want to come back and hug everyone… We’re in this together. I didn’t expect to be this emotional.”
Sanchez was filmed embracing Bezos and afterwards joked that she “had to come back” because of the couple’s upcoming wedding.
Meanwhile, King, who said she couldn’t accept being called an “astronaut” after the brief jaunt in space, said that the mission had been a reminder to “do better and be better human beings”.
She continued: “It’s so nasty and so vitriolic nowadays. I mean, everybody could experience that peace that we’ve had up there, and the kindness and what it takes to do what we did, all the people that it took to get us up there and get us back safely... I’ll never, ever, ever, forget.”
She also revealed that Perry had sung “What A Wonderful World” after the crew had returned to their seats after experiencing zero gravity.
Perry, whose daughter Daisy was watching, said the experience was only “second to being a mom”.
“That’s why it was hard for me to go, because that’s all my love right there,” she said after returning to Earth. “And I have to surrender and trust that the universe is going to take care of me and protect me, and also my family, my daughter, because, like, I’m full up from being able to get that gift to be... being a mom and to go to space is incredible, and I wanted to model courage and worthiness and fearlessness.”
Blue Origin Flight NS-31 is the first launch with an all-female crew since the Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo space flight in 1963.
The company has sent a range of celebrities, including Bezos himself, into space as part of promotion for what it hopes will eventually become a regular form of commercial space tourism.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments