Jeff Bezos recently announced an exciting mission: an all-female crew will fly into space on a Blue Origin rocket. This historic flight will take place in spring from a launchpad in west Texas. The crew includes notable women like singer Katy Perry, television host Gayle King, civil rights advocate Amanda Nguyen, producer Kerianne Flynn, former NASA scientist Aisha Bowe, and Bezos’s fiancée, Lauren Sánchez.
According to Blue Origin, this upcoming mission will be special as it will mark the first time since 1963, when Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova flew solo, that a human spaceflight will include no men on board.
Lauren Sánchez, a former journalist and pilot, is the one who chose this incredible team and helped organize the short 10-minute flight. Katy Perry, known for her hit songs, is also a philanthropist, working as a goodwill ambassador for children through the United Nations.
Gayle King, co-host of CBS Mornings, showed a video about her upcoming flight on her show, expressing her excitement. “You can’t possibly go up there and not come back unchanged,” she shared.
Amanda Nguyen and Aisha Bowe both have impressive backgrounds with NASA. Bowe is now the CEO of the engineering firm STEMBoard and the founder of Lingo, which focuses on technology education for students.
Meanwhile, Nguyen, an astrophysicist, advocates for survivors of sexual violence and has garnered prestigious nominations, including for the Nobel Peace Prize. Blue Origin highlighted Nguyen’s flight as a significant step in reconciliation between the US and Vietnam, emphasizing the importance of science for promoting peace.
This flight will also create a unique connection between Sánchez and Bezos, as both will have flown aboard the New Shepard. Bezos described his experience on the first flight in July 2021 as “the best day ever.”
So far, Blue Origin has successfully flown 52 people above the Kármán line, which marks the boundary of space recognized internationally. This upcoming flight with an all-female crew represents not just a milestone for the company, but also a moment of inspiration for women everywhere.