It appears all of the preparations Katy Perry made to host the MTV Video Music Awards in 2017 are going to turn out to be useful — this time on an precise journey to house.
“I’ve been training with @MTV in zero gravity, eating astronaut ice cream, and I’m on a group text with Buzz Aldrin and Neil deGrasse Tyson,” she mentioned then on Instagram, earlier than donning an iridescent spacesuit and swinging on wires over the stage.
Now she’ll be boarding Blue Origin‘s New Shepard rocket, together with just a few different movie star and high-profile crewmates: CBS Mornings’ Gayle King and Jeff Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sánchez, who based Black Ops Aviation, an aerial movie and manufacturing firm.
The so-called NS-31 mission — which does not have a launch date however is anticipated to occur this spring — would be the eleventh carrying passengers for the corporate. The spaceflight will journey greater than 60 miles up within the sky to kiss the Kármán line, the place Earth’s ambiance and outer house meet.
Perry and the all-female crew will rely themselves among the many United States’ newest civilian astronauts. Thus far, Blue Origin has taken 52 individuals to the house boundary.
Rounding out the crew shall be former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics scientist and social activist Amanda Nguyen, fashion-designer-turned-film-producer Kerianne Flynn, and Sánchez, who captured plenty of consideration in January when she accompanied Bezos, the founding father of Blue Origin, at President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
“If someone would have told me that I would be able to go to space one day,” Sánchez mentioned in an Instagram reel, “I would have definitely, well, I don’t know, laughed. I can’t believe it’s happening.”
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Lauren Sánchez, between Fb’s Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, captured plenty of consideration at President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025.
Credit score: Julia Demaree Nikhinson – Pool / Getty Photos
King, aka Oprah’s bestie, is equally gobsmacked. When CBS introduced her upcoming crew project, the community launched a video with a montage of the morning host, together with a clip of her speaking to correspondent Mark Strassman at a previous launch.
“Gayle, sooner or later, we’re going to get you up there,” he mentioned.
“Mark’s got jokes this morning,” King mentioned.
These are the six ladies going to house on Blue Origin’s New Shepard flight.
Credit score: Blue Origin
New Shepard rocket blasts off from Blue Origin’s West Texas launch pad.
Credit score: Blue Origin
It is unclear how a lot coaching the ladies will obtain earlier than the launch from Van Horn, Texas, or how a lot their seats price. Neither Blue Origin nor CBS spokespeople responded to questions from Mashable.
In 2021, the corporate auctioned off the primary ticket for New Shepard and donated the earnings to its basis, Membership for the Future, for space-focused charities. The winner of the seat paid $28 million, in accordance with Blue Origin. However some company have been in a position to trip at no cost.
Katy Perry hosts the MTV VMAs in an iridescent spacesuit.
Credit score: Kevin Winter / Getty Photos
Since initiating its human spaceflights, Blue Origin has grow to be identified for its onboard celebrities and offering brief flights for rich passengers. The corporate despatched Good Morning America host Michael Strahan up in December 2021. Previous to that, it flew the house captain of America’s coronary heart, Star Trek star William Shatner, who was among the many oldest individuals to fly in house on the ripe age of 90. Ed Dwight, NASA’s first Black astronaut candidate, additionally took a Blue Origin flight final 12 months on the age of 90.
Former Saturday Night time Reside comic Pete Davidson was readying for an area journey in March 2022 however missed the chance after the launch date needed to be rescheduled.
Blue Origin says this would be the first crew composed solely of ladies for the reason that Soviet Union cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo spaceflight in 1963.
