Katy Perry, Gayle King, Lauren Sánchez to join Blue Origin’s all-women spaceflight

Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' aerospace company, has announced its next spaceflight will feature an all-woman crew including pop star Katy Perry, news anchor Gayle King, and Bezos' fiancée Lauren Sanchez, according to Forbes. The six-person crew for the New Shepard program's upcoming flight will also include former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, research scientist Amanda Nguyen, and film producer Kerianne Flynn. The mission is scheduled for this spring and will last approximately 11 minutes, taking the crew just above the Kármán line — the internationally recognized boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space located about 62 miles above Earth's surface.

Blue Origin recently completed its tenth human spaceflight with the NS-30 mission on February 25, 2025, which marked the 30th flight for the New Shepard program, according to Blue Origin's announcement. The astronaut crew for that mission included Lane Bess, Jesús Calleja, Chicago Star Founder Elaine Chia Hyde, Dr. Richard Scott, Tushar Shah, and an undisclosed sixth crew member; Blue Origin pointed out that Lane Bess flew for the second time, becoming the fourth New Shepard customer to make a repeat journey.

The Guardian notes that the mission will be the 11th crewed flight of Blue Origin's New Shepard capsule, launching from a west Texas launchpad for a short journey beyond Earth's atmosphere. Lauren Sanchez, who became engaged to Bezos last year, was instrumental in arranging the 10-minute flight and personally selected the crew, according to information provided by The Guardian from Blue Origin's press release. Katy Perry, who will be joining this historic mission, is not only one of the bestselling musical artists of all time but also serves as a United Nations goodwill ambassador for children, The Guardian reports.

CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King played a video on her program Thursday previewing her upcoming spaceflight with Amanda Nguyen and Aisha Bowe, who both have previous professional connections to NASA; Bowe now serves as chief executive of engineering company STEM Board and founder of Lingo, an educational technology initiative, while Nguyen has become a prominent advocate for survivors of sexual violence since leaving NASA, The Guardian explains.

The upcoming mission represents a significant milestone for Blue Origin's space tourism efforts, with CNBC reporting that this will be the company's 11th human flight for its New Shepard program. A typical journey on the New Shepard rocket lasts approximately 10 minutes, during which the reusable rocket carries passengers beyond the edge of space, allowing the spacecraft and crew to experience microgravity for a couple of minutes before returning to Earth.