Blue Origin's All-Female Space Flight Goes Goes Off Without a Hitch
An all-female crew accomplished a brief spaceflight on Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket and capsule, the 31st such flight since its maiden flight in July 2021. The crew was a mixture of celebrities, including Katy Perry, Gayle King, and Lauren Sanchez, and scientists, such as Aisha Bowe, a former NASA rocket scientist, Amanda Nguyen, a bioastronautics research scientist, and Kerianne Flynn, a film producer.
The flight's weightlessness lasted only four minutes on the nine-minute flight to the Karman line, considered by many scientists as the dividing line of space, but the emotional impact was clear.
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Full of adrenaline, the women were moved to tears in interviews after landing.
'It was a feeling of joy,' said Sanchez, fiancée to Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, who was on the first flight in July 2021. Perry sang 'What a Wonderful World' during the flight. 'This is all for the benefit of Earth,' she said. 'This experience is second to being a mom.'
'I will never be the same,' added Bowe. 'There's no boundaries, no borders, just the Earth. I picked the right dream.'
King, who is terrified of flying, said that 'G-force' was difficult. The CBS morning anchor, who declined to be called an 'astronaut' after only two days of training, noted the sense of sisterhood in the capsule and hopes the short flight will inspire other women toward space.
The last all-female space mission happened in 1963, when Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova undertook the solo Vostok 6 mission to become the first woman in space.
Despite its brevity, Blue Origin's 31st flight is noteworthy because it introduced the first set of uniforms developed for females. 'Usually, you know, these suits are made for a man,' Sanchez told The New York Times. 'Then they get tailored to fit a woman.'
Five months before the flight, Sanchez reached out to Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim, cofounders of Monse, and also creative directors at Oscar de la Renta. Each crew member had 3-D body scans made of their physique for the made-to-measure suits. 'Simplicity was important, and comfort, and fit,' Mr. Garcia said. 'But we also wanted something that was a little dangerous, like a motocross outfit,' Garcia told the paper.
The flight suits are 'all about the four Fs: function, fashion, flare, and the future,' added Perry. In the end, functional fashion won out, but nobody really noticed the space wear with all the post-flight celebrations.
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