A six-member crew led by pop icon Katy Perry is set to blast off aboard a Blue Origin New Shepard rocket on April 14 for a suborbital journey to outer space, according to the US media.
This will be the first all-female spaceflight crew since 1963 and the 11th human flight for Blue Origin.
Perry will be joined by an accomplished team that includes journalist Gayle King, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics research scientist and civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, filmmaker Kerianne Flynn, and journalist and helicopter pilot Lauren Sánchez, who is engaged to Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.
The flight, launching from Launch Site One in West Texas at 7.00pm IST, will be a suborbital journey lasting around 11 minutes, reaching an altitude of approximately 65 miles (about 100 kilometre) — just past the Kármán line, the recognised boundary of outer space.
As the crew prepares for their brief voyage beyond Earth's atmosphere, they’re also opening up about their personal preparations and emotions ahead of the big day.
In their first group interview for ELLE’s special April digital cover issue, Katy Perry revealed she wanted to go to space for almost 20 years.
“I was investigating all of the possible commercial options. Even when Blue Origin was first talking about commercial travel to space, I was like, ‘Sign me up! I’m first in line.’ And then they called me, and I was like, ‘Really? I get an invite?’ And then they told me about it being the first all-female crew,” she said.
“I take pause in those moments and ask the universe to give me confirmations. And I really felt very sure when they sent me the picture of the space pod, because on the front of the pod is a feather, and that’s my mom’s nickname for me. And so I was like, Okay, I see it,” added Perry.
Gayle, on the other hand, said that she’s turning to meditation to manage her anxiety. Aisha Bowe, who previously worked as an aerospace engineer at NASA, shared her hands-on training experience as part of her preparation.
Meanwhile, Kerianne Flynn has been training through zero-gravity simulation flights and high-G training to get a feel for the upcoming weightlessness.