Blue Origin all-female flight, including Katy Perry and Gayle King, is set for Monday

USA Today

13-04-2025

Blue Origin all-female flight, including Katy Perry and Gayle King, is set for Monday
Pop star Katy Perry, journalist Gayle King and four fellow passengers are set to launch into space on a Blue Origin rocket on Monday morning.
The New Shepard rocket, a 59-foot-tall suborbital spacecraft, will carry the crew to the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space.
Passengers will experience a few minutes of microgravity before returning to Earth via parachute-assisted landing in the West Texas desert.
Who are the passengers on the NS-31 mission?
When and where is Blue Origin launching New Shepard?
New Shepard's launch window opens at 9:30 a.m. ET, according to Blue Origin.
Like all Blue Origin launches, the vehicle will lift off at Launch Site One on Corn Ranch, a private ranch in rural West Texas more than 140 miles east of El Paso.
Blue Origin said it plans to provide a livestream of the launch, with details to soon be released.
How many Blue Origin flights have there been?
Blue Origin has flown 30 missions, 10 of which have carried 52 people to the edge of space. Jeff Bezos was on the spacecraft's first crewed flight, NS-16, in 2021. The flight followed 15 test flights.
What to know about the New Shepard launch
The New Shepard crew will fly to space at more than three times the speed of sound. The spacefarers will pass the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space 62 miles above Earth, before unbuckling to float weightless and gaze at our planet. The crew will return gently under parachutes.
The passengers will watch their progress from six windows, about 4 feet high, one for each occupant. Blue Origin says they're the largest windows in space and take up one-third of the cabin's surface area.
The crew capsule will separate from the rocket three minutes after liftoff. The capsule reaches apogee – the flight point farthest from Earth – in about the fourth minute.
After the capsule separates from the rocket, the occupants will experience about three minutes of weightlessness. The capsule is fitted with handrails to allow movement.
The capsule then will descend and land by parachute near the launch site as the rocket lands itself at the site. The craft operates autonomously and doesn't have a pilot.
How does New Shepard rocket compare?
Symbolism in the Blue Origin mission patch
The NS-31 mission patch contains symbols representing the six crew members.
Gayle King, Katy Perry head to space in historic flight
Blue Origin's "New Shepard" space vehicle will historically carry an all-female crew, including Katy Perry and Gayle King, to space.
What does the future hold for Blue Origin?
Blue Origin was one of three rocket companies awarded launch contracts totaling $13.7 billion by the U.S. Space Force's Space Systems Command for national security launches, as announced on April 4. Blue Origin's contract was for roughly $2.4 billion for seven launches.
This contract designates New Glenn, Blue Origin's largest rocket, for missions to orbits requiring higher-performance launch systems and mission assurance as a Space Systems Command certified launch vehicle.
The New Glenn rocket stands over 320 feet tall. This heavy-lift rocket is capable of carrying a payload of more than 28,600 pounds to geostationary transfer orbit and 99,208 pounds to low Earth orbit. It had its first test launch, called NG-1, in January.
CONTRIBUTING Eric Lagatta
SOURCE USA TODAY Network reporting and research; Blue Origin; Reuters: Getty Images