Jeff Bezos’ next Blue Origin mission will be one for the history books.
Not since 1963 has a rocket flown into space with an all-female crew.
That changes this spring when a crew made up of all women will be launched on board the New Shepard spacecraft from Texas, USA Today reported.
Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn and Lauren Sánchez were announced as members of the NS-31 mission on Thursday.
🚀 Meet the New Shepard NS-31 crew launching this spring: Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sánchez, who brought the mission together. Read more: https://t.co/w4ryNViYPI pic.twitter.com/qm45kHVc2e
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) February 27, 2025
Sánchez, who is Jeff Bezos’ fiancée, was said to have “brought the mission together” and was “honored to lead a team of explorers on a mission that will challenge their perspectives of Earth, empower them to share their own stories, and create lasting impact that will inspire generations to come.”
Two of the women on board the flight are actual scientists.
Bowe is a former NASA rocket scientist and is the CEO of engineering firm STEMBoard.
Nguyen is a bioastronautics research scientist who also worked with NASA as well as the Harvard Center for Astrophysics, MIT and the International Institute for Astronautical Scientists.
The remainder of the crew are not scientists and are rather journalists and entertainers.
King is a co-host of “CBS Mornings,” editor-at-large at “Oprah Daily” and host of “Gayle King in the House” podcast.
Flynn has had a career in fashion but has focused on community-building through her work on several boards and nonprofits. She is also a film producer.
Sánchez is an Emmy-winning journalist, author and pilot. She founded Black Ops Aviation, the first female-owned aerial film and production company.
Perry is the Grammy-award-winning singer, and the “biggest-selling female artist in Capitol Records’ history,” according to Blue Origin. She is also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and founder of the Firework Foundation which empowers children in underserved communities.
Their flight will last 11 minutes and will go past the Kármán line, or the boundary of space. They will have several minutes of weightlessness before returning to Earth on the fully autonomous vehicle, USA Today reported.
That means that there is no pilot and everyone on board is a crewmember, with no specific job to do.
A specific date for the launch has not been given yet, other than saying it would take off in spring 2025, Variety reported.
It will be the 11th human flight for Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft and the 31st overall.
So far there have been 52 people who have launched on New Shepard, including William Shatner who became the oldest person in space at the age of 90, when he was onboard in 2021, according to Variety.
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