American pop sensation Katy Perry and five others wrote their names in history books when they became the first all-women crew members of Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft that travelled to space briefly and then safely returned home on Monday.
The rocket was built by a space company owned by Amazon chief Jeff Bezos.
The rocket set off from the launch site located in West Texas at 08:30 local time and carried Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sánchez, US TV presenter Gayle King, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, film producer Kerianne Flynn, and Perry, to space.
The unique journey lasted for 11 minutes.
The spacecraft travelled over 100km (62 miles) above Earth and crossed the Karman line.
It is the widely recognised boundary margin of space.
The passengers experienced weightlessness for a few minutes before returning home.
The spacecraft was fully autonomous and was controlled remotely.
The capsule returned to Earth with a soft landing using a parachute, with the rocket booster landing itself around two miles away from the launch site, reported BBC.
No place like home, says Perry
In her first reaction after returning home, Perry wrote on X: “There is no place like home.”
Phil Joyce, Senior Vice President, New Shepard, said: “What a privilege to witness this crew of trailblazers depart the capsule today.”
Joyce said, “Each of these women is a storyteller who will use their voices—individually and together—to channel their life-changing experience today into creating lasting impact that will inspire people across our planet for generations. Thank you to this remarkable crew for uplifting so many on their historic journey toward the stars and back.”
Price of space tour
Although the space tourism company Blue Origin has not revealed full ticket prices, a USD 150,000 deposit is required to save a seat, reported BBC.
Perry shared a video of their moment spent in space on Instagram.
