Katy Perry, Lauren Sanchez Among Trailblazing All-Female Crew on Historic Blue Origin Spaceflight

Blue Origin made history Monday morning as its New Shepard rocket successfully launched and returned an all-female crew to Earth, marking the company’s first suborbital flight composed entirely of women — and the first such mission since 1963.

Pop superstar Katy Perry headlined the six-woman crew, joined by Lauren Sanchez, journalist and helicopter pilot, who is also the fiancée of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos. The 11-minute journey took the crew more than 60 miles above Earth, briefly crossing the Kármán line — the internationally recognized boundary of outer space — before returning safely to the West Texas desert.

Alongside Perry and Sanchez were TV journalist Gayle King; former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe; bioastronautics researcher and civil rights advocate Amanda Nguyen; and filmmaker Kerianne Flynn.

A handout photo released by Blue Origin showed the six women posing in their flight suits ahead of the mission, smiling and standing united in what the company described as a “celebration of progress, possibility, and representation.”

Upon landing, Perry exited the capsule, raised her hand skyward, and kissed the ground. She later revealed she had carried a daisy flower onboard in honor of her 4-year-old daughter, Daisy, whom she shares with actor Orlando Bloom.

“I’ve dreamt of going to space for 15 years, and today that dream became a reality,” Perry wrote in a social media post shared before launch. During the flight, she serenaded her fellow crew members with “What a Wonderful World,” according to King.

The NS-31 mission launched at around 8:30 a.m. CDT from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One and is the 11th crewed flight of the New Shepard rocket. The successful flight is being hailed as a milestone for gender representation in space exploration — the first all-female space mission since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s historic solo journey in 1963.

Blue Origin has not yet announced plans for future all-female missions, but the success of NS-31 is expected to inspire a new generation of women and girls to look to the stars.