Katy Perry launched into space with Blue Origin
- Katy Perry has launched into space aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket as part of NS-31 flight, joining five other women including former NASA scientists and journalist Gayle King.
- The launch took place at 8:30AM CT / 9:30AM ET and was livestreamed on YouTube and Blue Origin’s website, with the capsule touching down in west Texas over three minutes after the rocket landed.
- This is Blue Origin’s 31st New Shepard launch, following previous flights that have taken passengers to the edge of space, including William Shatner and 90-year-old Ed Dwight.
- Katy Perry has expressed her excitement for the flight, stating she plans to make a “special reveal” from zero gravity and may even sing in space.
- The NS-31 flight marks a milestone for Blue Origin, with Perry being one of the first women to reach space as part of the company’s commercial spaceflight program.
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin has launched pop singer / songwriter Katy Perry into space, along with five other women: former NASA scientists Aisha Bowe and Amanda Nguyen, journalist Gayle King, journalist and Bezos fiancée Lauren Sánchez, and film producer Kerianne Flynn. Their flight, called NS-31, launched aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket as its launch window opened at 8:30AM CT / 9:30AM ET. It’s being livestreamed both on YouTube and Blue Origin’s website.
Past New Shepard flights have taken passengers just to the edge of space, where they’re allowed to unbuckle and roam freely for a few minutes inside the capsule before buckling up again for re-entry. The capsule then deploys a parachute and touches back down in west Texas. Seven minutes after today’s launch, the New Shepard rocket itself touched back down on its landing pad, while the capsule carrying the Blue Origin capsule’s passengers touched down more than three minutes after that.
In a video posted to Instagram before the flight, Perry said she plans to make a “special reveal coming to you from zero gravity.” She posted an earlier video touring the capsule that she and the others will be aboard, and said she will probably sing in space. Whatever that reveal was, it wasn’t audible on the livestream, which cut out a few times while we were watching.
This is Blue Origin’s 31st New Shepard launch. The rocket’s last flight was in February, and previous tourists aboard New Shepard flights include William Shatner, and 90-year-old Ed Dwight, who was America’s first astronaut candidate, but who never made it to space.