US pop star Katy Perry is set to explore the cosmos in an all-female flight on the New Shepherd rocketship maintained by Blue Origin, a space technology company owned by billionaire and former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
Perry will travel into space alongside journalist and TV personality (as well as Oprah Winfrey’s bestie) Gayle King, research scientist Amanda Nguyen, aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe, film producer Kerianne Flynn, and Bezos’ partner Lauren Sánchez.
The Blue Origin suborbital flight is scheduled to launch later this year on the New Shepherd, and it will mark the first all-woman trip into space since Soviet Union astronaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo mission in 1963.
There is currently no confirmation on the date the flight will take place, however Blue Origin stated that it will launch “this spring”, meaning that it’ll be in the next few months (autumn for us Southern Hemisphere folks).
In a statement to Newsweek, Perry shared her excitement about joining the space mission: “If you had told me I’d be part of the first all-female crew in space, I would have believed you. Nothing was beyond my imagination as a child.”
This trip to space will probably soften the blow of Perry having to deal with the fallout of her globally-panned album release from last year, too.
King, who recently turned 70, also expressed her anticipation for the upcoming trip, describing it as a “thrilling new chapter” in an appearance on CBS Mornings.
“I don’t know how to explain being terrified and excited at the same time. It’s like how I felt before delivering a baby.”
The suborbital flight will take the passengers past the Karman line; recognised internationally as the ‘edge of space’.
A trip on the New Shepherd usually lasts around 11 minutes and will be fully autonomous – meaning that there will be no pilot onboard.
The Blue Origin mission will be the 11th spaceflight with passengers for the New Shepherd rocket, and the 31st flight overall in its history.
Blue Origin has launched 52 people into space so far.
The post Katy Perry & A Bunch Of Other Celebs Are Heading To Space In Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Rocket appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
