The next suborbital spaceflight planned by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture is due to follow through on the dream of Bezos’ fiancee, Lauren Sanchez, to lead an all-woman crew — and that crew will include pop superstar Katy Perry and morning-TV host Gayle King.
Three advocates for women in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, will round out the six-person crew for a mission known as NS-31, Blue Origin announced today. The flight date hasn’t yet been announced, but the company says it will launch this spring.
“This will be the first all-female flight crew since Valentina Tereshkova’s solo spaceflight in 1963,” Blue Origin said in a reference to the Soviet space pioneer.
Sanchez called her crewmates “fearless explorers” in a posting to Threads. “I really see this group as explorers, and storytellers, each of us about to be changed by a remarkable view of our beautiful planet,” she said. “The countdown starts now!”
