New Delhi: Pop star Katy Perry and five other women successfully launched into space on a Blue Origin rocket and returned to Earth on Monday, marking the first all-female spaceflight in over 60 years.
The crew lifted off from West Texas at 9:31 a.m. ET (1331 GMT) and travelled to the edge of space, where they experienced a brief period of weightlessness before returning to Earth. The entire flight lasted around 11 minutes, as per a live broadcast by Blue Origin, the space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos.
This spaceflight was a high-profile success for Bezos’ New Shepard launch vehicle, which has been developed for space tourism. The six-person crew included Bezos’ fiancee Lauren Sanchez, CBS host Gayle King, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, activist Amanda Nguyen, and film producer Kerianne Flynn.
Among the celebrities present at the launch pad were a tearful Oprah Winfrey, a close friend of King, as well as show business personalities Kris Jenner and Khloe Kardashian. This was the first all-female spaceflight since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, orbited Earth during a nearly three-day solo flight in 1963.
Blue Origin does not disclose the average cost of a seat on one of its rockets. On its official website, the company states that potential passengers must pay a refundable deposit of $150,000 to begin the ordering process.
