Blue Origin has set a launch date for its historic NS-31 tourist flight that includes well-known celebrities and activists.
The NS-31 mission will take off atop Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket and see an all-female crew fly to the edge of space and back. The crew includes Amanda Nguyen, a civil rights activist who will become the first Vietnamese woman to fly to space, CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King, pop superstar Katy Perry, film producer Kerianne Flynn, entrepreneur and former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, and journalist and philanthropist Lauren Sánchez — partner of Blue Origin's billionaire founder Jeff Bezos.
NS-31 will take off from Blue Origin's West Texas launch site on Monday, April 14 at 9:30 a.m. ET (1330 GMT). As with past Blue Origin launches, you will be able watch the launch here at Space.com, courtesy of Blue Origin, once a livestream is made available.
In a blog post announcing the launch date, Blue Origin also shared the NS-31 mission patch for the first time, which depicts a New Shepard rocket flying into the stars beside six silhouettes representing each of the crew members.
The post also describes the six symbols surrounding the rocket on the patch and how they represent each of the women on the flight. Scales symbolize Amanda Nguyen's commitment to advocating for civil rights, a star for Aisha Bowe represents her "ambition for setting big goals,” and a microphone symbolizes Gayle King's "commitment to sharing important stories with the world."
Katy Perry, naturally, is represented by a firework, while a film reel stands in for Kerianne Flynn's passion for filmmaking. Lauren Sánchez, meanwhile, is represented by Flynn the Fly, a character from her bestselling children's book The Fly Who Flew to Space, a tale about overcoming adversity to achieve one's dreams.
The NS-31 crew will fly to just above the Kármán line, widely seen as the boundary of space at 62 miles (100 kilometers) above Earth. New Shepard features a reusable booster and crew capsule that fly passengers on short 11-minute flights during which they experience around four minutes of weightlessness and get panoramic views of the blackness of space and Earth's curvature. The flights are autonomous and do not include pilots.
This will be Blue Origin's 11th crewed tourist flight. Its last flight took place on Feb. 25, 2025, featuring a crew that named themselves "Perfect 10."
