Pop superstar Katy Perry has officially added “space traveler” to her resume. On April 14 she joined five other trailblazing women aboard Jeff Bezos Blue Origin rocket for a brief but historic trip to the edge of space marking the first all-female spaceflight since 1963.
Perry flew alongside Lauren Sanchez (Bezos’s fiancée), CBS anchor Gayle King, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, scientist Amanda Nguyen, and film producer Kerianne Flynn. The group lifted off from West Texas at 9:31 a.m. ET soaring more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) above Earth’s surface past the Karman line, the internationally recognized boundary of space.
The 11-minute mission aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft offered the crew a few weightless moments before safely descending back to Earth. The milestone flight was streamed live and celebrated as a major moment for both women in science and the future of space tourism.
Back on the ground, emotions were high. Bezos greeted Sanchez with a heartfelt hug, while Perry was seen clutching a daisy flower a tribute to her daughter, Daisy. “I feel super connected to love,” she said after landing. At one point King shared that Perry sang “What a Wonderful World” as the crew returned to their seats post-weightlessness.
The launch drew celebrity attention on Earth too, with Oprah Winfrey reportedly moved to tears while cheering for her friend Gayle King. Kris Jenner and Khloe Kardashian also showed up to support.
While Blue Origin doesn’t publicly reveal how much a seat costs, their website indicates a $150,000 refundable deposit to begin the process. Some passengers often celebrities or influential figures are invited to fly for free. A seat on Blue Origin’s first crewed flight in 2021 was auctioned for a whopping $28 million.
Space industry experts estimate that for the New Shepard program to be sustainable, each passenger might eventually need to pay around $500,000 per flight. However, Blue Origin insists its long-term vision is to make space more accessible, with reusable rockets designed to lower overall costs.
This mission not only breaks ground in space tourism but also rewrites history echoing the legacy of Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to fly solo in space back in 1963. Over 60 years later, Katy Perry and her all-female crew have taken that baton into the stars and brought it back glowing.
