Pop singer Katie Perry, TV personality Gayle King, and several others were on board the first all-female flight to space in decades that blasted off and landed successfully on Monday morning.
The women on Blue Origin’s NS-31 mission took off from West Texas on a trip that lasted just over ten minutes. It was the first all-female space crew since Soviet-era cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, who is also the first woman in space, orbited the Earth during a solo mission in 1963.
Besides Perry and King, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics research scientist Amanda Nguyen, film producer Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sánchez, who is engaged to Blue Origin and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, comprised the NS-31 crew.
The flight briefly traveled above the Kármán Line, the internationally recognized boundary of space, about 62 miles above Earth’s surface.
Several famous faces were present at the launch event, including Perry’s daughter Daisy and her husband, actor Orlando Bloom. King’s best friend, Oprah Winfrey, showed up to watch, as did other celebs, including Kris Jenner and Khloe Kardashian.
Welcome to West Texas, NS-31 crew! pic.twitter.com/8dFPqiaiZW
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) April 13, 2025
The women did an interview with Elle magazine before the launch during the first week of April.
Perry insisted the event would be “glam,” while King said she was “terrified.”
“I haven’t felt like this since childbirth, really,” said King.
The women have been getting some pushback from those asking the point of the mission. Actress Olivia Munn said as much earlier this month on an episode of “Today with Jenna and Friends.”
“What’s the point? Is it historic that you guys are going on a ride? I think it’s a bit gluttonous,” Munn said. “Space exploration was to further our knowledge and to help mankind. What are they gonna do up there that has made it better for us down here?”
“No offense, but they’re passengers, not crew and it’s a flight, not a mission. They have zero controls over the ship, just sit there, then float for a few minutes, then return. The whole thing is like 15 minutes. It’s publicity, at best,” one commenter on X noted.
“Katy Perry and some other random women were just launched into space on a Blue Origin rocket for no reason other than to waste money and virtue signal about women. I’m all for venturing into space but this wasteful wokeness doesn’t help,” another agreed.
Many others said there was nothing wrong with taking the flight if the people on board had the means and the interest.
“I don’t care that it was an all female crew, I care that they made it back successfully. That was pretty cool,” one person said.
