Historic all-woman space flight to include Katy Perry, Lauren Sa?nchez

Blue Origin says its next spaceflight is set to make history.

With celebrities such as Katy Perry, Lauren Sa?nchez and Gayle King on board, the all-woman crew will fly into space when the New Shepard spacecraft launches from the West Texas desert this spring. The company says it's the first all-woman flight since the Soviet Union's Valentina Tereshkova’s solo spaceflight in 1963.

The flight comes as Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin continues to become a major player in the commercial space industry – competing with the likes of Elon Musk's SpaceX for NASA's business as well as the business of other private companies.

During the 11-minute journey, the crew of the New Shepard will soar past the "Kármán line," the internationally recognized boundary of space, experiencing several minutes of weightlessness and witnessing views of Earth through windows that take up more than one-third of the capsule’s surface area.

"Every person on board is a crew member ? there are no pilots," according to a statement from Blue Origin, which noted that New Shepard is a fully autonomous vehicle, with no specialized roles for the crew.

“This flight will undoubtedly prove to be a life-changing experience for each of us, and I’m honored to be with such an incredible group of explorers,” said Sánchez, fiancee of Bezos, who pulled the flight crew together. “Most importantly, I am looking forward to all the women in this crew sharing their story and inspiring future generations to dream big.”

Who will be on board the flight?

New Shepard’s 11th human flight, NS-31, will launch with Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn and Lauren Sánchez on board. Here is more about them:

? Aisha Bowe. Bowe is a former NASA rocket scientist, entrepreneur and global STEM advocate. She is CEO of STEMBoard and founder of LINGO. Bowe, when asked to comment on the flight, said: “Every step of my journey, from community college to NASA, entrepreneurship and now space, has been about showing that no dream is out of reach. Flying alongside these remarkable women, we are expanding the art of the possible."

? Amanda Nguyen. Nguyen, a bioastronautics research scientist, said that "as the first Vietnamese woman to go to space, I’m flying for Vietnamese girls to see themselves in the stars." She graduated from Harvard and conducted research at Harvard Center for Astrophysics, MIT, NASA and the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences.

? Gayle King. King is a journalist, co-host of "CBS Mornings," editor-at-large of Oprah Daily, and the host of Gayle King in the House on SiriusXM radio. She said, "to take on a new adventure at this point of my life is exciting to me, especially with this group of fantastic women.”

? Katy Perry. Perry is one of the bestselling music artists of all time and a former host of "American Idol." Her albums have sold more than 143 million copies worldwide. Perry said this week that "if you had told me that I would be part of the first ever all-female crew in space, I would have believed you. Nothing was beyond my imagination as a child."

? Kerianne Flynn. Flynn has spent the past decade focused on nonprofit work and film production. In 2024, she produced the film Lilly, which portrays the journey of Lilly Ledbetter, the American activist whose Supreme Court case led to the passing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009. "Hopefully, myself and other future astronauts can use this experience to motivate the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators about the importance of taking care of our planet and living on it as one human race.”

? Lauren Sánchez: Fiancee of Bezos, Sánchez is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, New York Times bestselling author, pilot, vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund and mother of three.

Has there ever been an all-woman spaceflight?

The last flight that could claim to be an all-woman flight contained just one person, according to NASA. Tereshkova was launched aboard the Soviet spacecraft Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963, and became the first woman to fly in space. In the nearly three-day flight, Vostok 6 made 48 orbits of Earth.

Upon completion of her mission, Tereshkova was honored with the title Hero of the Soviet Union. She never flew in space again, but she did become a spokesperson for the Soviet Union, NASA said.

What is the New Shepard spacecraft?

Named after astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American in space, New Shepard is Blue Origin’s fully reusable suborbital rocket system.

This mission will be the 11th human flight for the New Shepard program and the 31st in its history. To date, the program has flown 52 people above the Kármán line.

(This story has been updated to correct a misspelling/typo.)

Contributing: Eric Lagatta

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Historic all-woman space flight to include Katy Perry, Lauren Sa?nchez