Katy Perry has completed a space flight aboard Blue Origin among an all-female crew.
On Monday, a crew of six including Perry, author Lauren Sanchez, who is dating the Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos; TV host Gayle King; civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen; former rocket scientist Aisha Bowe; and filmmaker Kerianne Flynn, took off from Blue Origin’s Launch Site One in West Texas.
Their flight lasted around 11 minutes, soaring 100 kilometers above the Earth - enough to officially enter space.
The crew were heard screaming in excitement and marveling at the sighs they could see before they landed in a "picture-perfect" landing back on Earth.
Prior to taking off, the 40-year-old singer gave fans a behind-the-scenes look at the capsule that was set to carry her into space.
Perry took to Instagram to share a first glimpse inside the capsule, showing off the tight-knit space that will house all six women during the flight.
“I think I’m gonna sing,” she said in the video. “I’ve got to sing in space!” She added: “These are all of my astronaut girly friends,” as she panned the camera across the capsule’s interior.
Ahead of today's latest mission, concerns about the safety of the Blue Origin capsule had reemerged.
Back in 2021, a group of 21 current and former employees raised alarms about the safety of the New Shepard rocket used for suborbital flights like this one.
“In the opinion of an engineer who has signed on to this essay, ‘Blue Origin has been lucky that nothing has happened so far,’” the employees wrote in a letter published by Business Insider. “Many of this essay’s authors say they would not fly on a Blue Origin vehicle.”
While space flight remains one of the riskiest modes of transportation, with approximately one percent of US space flights resulting in fatalities, Blue Origin defended the integrity of its program in response.
“We stand by our safety record and believe that New Shepard is the safest space vehicle ever designed or built,” the company said at the time.
The company’s safety record was further tested in August 2022 when an unmanned rocket suffered an engine nozzle malfunction, forcing the capsule to abort mid-flight and parachute to safety. The incident led to a temporary grounding of flights.
Despite the concerns, Perry had revealed she was placing her faith in a higher power.
On Instagram, she shared an emotional story about her connection to the capsule’s design and reflected on what she believes are signs from the universe confirming her decision to go to space.
“When I was invited to come on this voyage, I looked up the capsule. On the very front of it is the outline in the shape of a feather, and when I saw that, it was like a total confirmation because my mum has always called me feather,” she said.
The 'Teenage Dream' songstress continued: "And so I’m in space training today, and there’s a lot to digest. We’re almost finished with the day, and they showed us the capsule, and we ran simulations in another capsule and tested the noise and what to expect and all these different things, and they reveal the capsule name.
“The capsule’s name is Tortoise. A wave, just the most energetic wave, just shot through my body. And I was like, ‘What? This capsule’s name is Tortoise?'" she said. “My mum calls me two nicknames. Feather and tortoise. What are the chances that I’m going to space on a rocket in a capsule with my symbol, the feather, called Tortoise?”
“There are no coincidences,” Perry added. “And I’m just so grateful for these confirmations and so grateful that I feel like something bigger than me is steering the ship.”
This will be the 11th human flight for Blue Origin’s space program, which began sending passengers - including Bezos himself - to space in 2021.
The company also holds a NASA contract to build a lunar lander for an upcoming Artemis mission aimed at returning astronauts to the Moon.
Congratulations to this latest groundbreaking crew on their successful space flight.