Pop star Katy Perry and five other women journeyed into space aboard a Blue Origin rocket and successfully returned to Earth on Monday, marking the first all-female spaceflight in over 60 years.
The crew launched from West Texas at 9:31 am ET (1331 GMT) and ascended to the edge of space, where they experienced a brief period of weightlessness before returning to Earth in a flight lasting approximately 11 minutes, according to a live broadcast by Blue Origin, the space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos.
The spaceflight represented a significant success for Bezos’ New Shepard launch vehicle, which has been developed for space tourism.
The six-person crew also included Bezos’ fiancée, Lauren Sanchez; CBS host Gayle King; former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe; scientist Amanda Nguyen; and film producer Kerianne Flynn.
King reported that upon the crew’s return to their seats after experiencing weightlessness, Perry sang the Louis Armstrong song “What a Wonderful World.”
“I feel super connected to love,” Katy Perry expressed after landing back on Earth.
Perry held a daisy, a flower she carried into space as a reminder of her daughter, Daisy.
Among the celebrities present at the launch pad were a tearful Oprah Winfrey, a close friend of King, and show business personalities Kris Jenner and Khloe Kardashian.
This marked the first all-female spaceflight since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova – the first woman in space – orbited Earth during a nearly three-day solo mission in 1963.
Blue Origin does not disclose the average cost of a seat on its rockets. On its website, the company states that potential passengers are required to pay a refundable deposit of $150,000 to initiate the “order process.”
In 2021, the company revealed that the highest bid for a seat on its New Shepard spacecraft was $28 million. In the same year, “Star Trek” actor William Shatner flew free of charge as a guest of Blue Origin.
In 2018, Reuters reported that the company was planning to charge passengers at least $200,000 for the ride.
Blue Origin states on its website that its aim is to radically reduce the cost of access to space, with its rockets designed for reusability.
Loizos Heracleous, a professor of strategy and organization at Warwick Business School in Britain, estimates that each launch of the New Shepard costs between $1 to $3 million.
“Even disregarding development costs, with six seats available, each passenger would need to pay around half a million USD for this to be a financially viable ongoing business,” Heracleous said. “It will take a long, long time before space tourism can be a financially sustainable business accessible to the general public.”
