Blue Origin, the private space company of Jeff Bezos, made history on Monday (April 14) by taking an all-female crew to space and back. It was the first all-female flight after more than 60 years, dating back to June 16, 1963, when Soviet Union’s Valentina Tereshkova lifted off on a three-day mission to Earth’s orbit. She flew by herself and made history by being the first woman in space. However, NS-31 was the first space flight with all female members. This was the 31st overall mission of Blue Origin and the 11th crewed flight taken by the reusable New Shepard vehicle.
Female Crew Members
The onboard members were Katy Perry, the famous pop star singer; Gayle King, co-host of the CBS Morning Show; Aisha Bowe, NASA Rocket Scientist; Kerianne Flynn, film producer; Amanda Nguyen, the civil rights activist; and Lauren Sánchez, journalist. As per ABC News, the women were called upon by Sánchez, who is the fiancée to Jeff Bezos. The official handle of Blue Origin on X (formerly known as Twitter) shared visuals of the space vehicle’s liftoff.
According to Blue Origin, each of them put a little of themselves into the NS-31 mission patch. For instance, a small scale indicates Amanda’s advocacy for civil rights and social rights, and the exploding fireworks signal Perry’s global presence across pop culture and philanthropy.
The crewmembers named the mission patch “the six taking up space”.
Launch and Landing
The New Shepard space vehicle was launched at 9:31 ET (1331 GMT) from the launch pad at the site of Blue Origin in West Texas, about 30 miles to the north of Van Horn. The spacecraft went as high as the Karman line, the edge of space, which is located 100km above the surface of the Earth, and then safely landed back.
Before returning to Earth, the crewmembers experienced weightlessness for a little while and could see Earth surrounded by the blackness of space. The flight lasted for around 11 minutes and was livestreamed by Blue Origin. One of the crew members said Look at the moon, and Perry replied, Oh my God, that’s our pink Moon. This was the 31st mission of Blue Origin’s reusable Shephard vehicle, therefore, the name was derived—and the 11th with the crew. The others are research flights without crew.
