Blue Origin, the space tourism company founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, successfully launched and landed an all-female celebrity crew on Monday — headlined by global pop icon Katy Perry — sending them to the edge of space for an almost 11-minute journey.
The six-person crew flying aboard the New Shepard rocket,included Perry and Bezos’s fiancée Lauren Sanchez, along with four other women.
Among the other crew members sharing the ride were civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, producer Kerianne Flynn, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, and journalist Gayle King.
Confirming the safe landing in a social media post on X, the space tourism company wrote: “Capsule touchdown. Welcome back, NS-31 crew!"
The entire flight lasted just almost 11 minutes — long enough for the crew to experience weightlessness and take in the view from the edge of space.
Providing more details about the mission, Blue Origin shared, “Official launch time was 8:30:00 AM CDT / 13:30:00 UTC. Capsule landing occurred at 8:40:21 AM CDT / 13:40:21 UTC. The mission elapsed time was 10 min 21 sec."
The mission, dubbed NS-31, took off from West Texas at 7 PM IST, soaring more than 60 miles (100 kilometers) above Earth — crossing the Karman line, the boundary of space — before safely returning to Earth.
This mission also marks the first all-woman space crew since Valentina Tereshkova’s historic solo flight in 1963. It is also Blue Origin’s 11th sub-orbital crewed mission, which has offered space tourism experiences for several years.