Million-dollar trip: Katy Perry, Gayle King and all-female crew make space history

Million-dollar trip: Katy Perry, Gayle King and all-female crew make space history (Photo: Blue Origin/ Instagram)

Katy Perry, Gayle King, Lauren Sanchez, Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen and Kerianne Flynn made history as they became the first all-female flight crew to launch into space. The famous ladies took off to space courtesy of Blue Origin Enterprises.

The six women spent approximately ten minutes and 21 seconds in space on April 14, 2025, as part of Blue Origin's all-female NS-31 mission. They traveled beyond the Kármán line before safely returning to Earth.

The Kármán line is 100 kilometers (about 62 miles) above Earth and is known as the place where space begins. It is often used to mark the edge between Earth's atmosphere and outer space. This definition is accepted by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).

The Blue Origin posted a video on Instagram of the ladies in the New Shepard spacecraft while in space. They held up models of countries stating that they were on top of them in space. “Look, we are in space Bahamas,” Bahamian-American Aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe said as she held up a cardboard model.

Before the event, “Roar” hit maker Katy Perry had teased that she would sing while she and her crewmates were in space. “I think I’m gonna sing, sing a little bit. I gotta sing in space!” she had said.

However, she ended up singing legendary artist Louis Armstrong's “What a Wonderful World” instead of her songs. The award-winning musician stated that she did not want to make it about herself.

Additionally, the “Bon Appétit” singer said that the remarkable endeavour was about making history as women and appreciating the earth’s beauty. “I think that it’s not about me. It’s not about singing my songs. It’s about a collective energy in there. It’s about us. It’s about making space for future women and taking up space and belonging. And it’s about this wonderful world that we see right out there and appreciating it. This is all for the benefit of Earth,” she said in her post-flight interview with Us Weekly.

Lauren Sánchez was among the six women included, who is engaged to Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos. Much like Gayle King, she rose to fame through her journalism career as guest host on “The View”, a cohost on KTTV Fox 11’s “Good Day L.A.” and an anchor on “Extra”.

Gayle King is a CBS News personality, while Kerianne Flynn is a film producer known for working on independent movies like “The Automatic Hate” (2015), “This Changes Everything” (2018), and “Lilly” (2024). The last member of the BlueOrigin flight crew was Amanda Nguyen, a scientist who studies space and how it affects the human body. She graduated from Harvard and did research at the Harvard Center for Astrophysics, MIT, NASA and the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences. Nguyen is also the first Vietnamese woman to go to space.

Space tourism began in April 2001, when American businessman and engineer Dennis Tito became the first space tourist by flying on the Soyuz-TM32 spacecraft. Since then, space tourism has become a popular form of adventure and entertainment for people around the world. The most recent trip was done by Blue Origin Enterprises, which comes at a significant price tag.

Blue Origin, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, costs $150,000 (Sh19 million) as a deposit for the adventure. Other companies like Virgin Galactic seats cost $450,000 (Sh58 million), while SpaceX Civilian Mission costs $220,000(Sh28 million).