Lauren Sanchez's all-female space flight is about to blast off – and will challenge Elon Musk's SpaceX
Jeff Bezos is blasting his bride-to-be Lauren Sánchez and her 'guests' to space on Monday – a plan that might, under other circumstances, contain mixed messages.
A crew of six women – Amanda Nguyen, a civil rights activist who will become the first Vietnamese woman to fly to space; the CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King; the pop star Katy Perry; film producer Kerianne Flynn; entrepreneur and former Nasa rocket scientist Aisha Bowe; and Sánchez, a journalist and philanthropist – will blast off on Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket from the company's launch site, 30 miles north of Van Horn, Texas, on an 11-minute, suborbital flight to the edge of space and back.
Though billed as the first all-female crew to reach the Kármán line, the internationally recognised boundary of space at an altitude of 62 miles, it is not technically so: the cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova flew a solo mission to space in 1963.
But Tereshkova didn't blast off with the accoutrements afforded the new ladies of space. 'We're a crew!' they reportedly shouted in unison at a photoshoot for Elle magazine, each rocking 'an all-black power look'. The magazine noted that this will be the first time anyone has been to space with their hair and makeup done.
'Who would not get glam before the flight?' Sánchez remarked. Perry added: 'Space is going to finally be glam. Let me tell you something. If I could take glam up with me, I would do that. We are going to put the 'ass' in astronaut.'
But trips like these raise questions: are they anything more than joy rides – and do they need to be? King said she 'had a lot of trepidation – I still do – but I also know it's very interesting to be terrified and excited at the same time. I haven't felt like this since childbirth. Because I knew childbirth was going to hurt. But it's also stepping out of your comfort zone.'
The actor William Shatner, aka Captain James T Kirk of the Starship Enterprise, took one of the first flights on Bezos's rocket at the age of 90 in 2022. He said he was surprised by his own reaction to the experience – and moved to tears. 'When I looked in the opposite direction, into space, there was no mystery, no majestic awe to behold ... All I saw was death. I saw a cold, dark, black emptiness. It was unlike any blackness you can see or feel on Earth. It was deep, enveloping, all-encompassing. It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered,' he added.
For Bezos, however, the all-female trip may be more than a curated joyride in a rocket that flies itself. The Amazon co-founder is locked in a competitive commercial space launch industry battle with Elon Musk. Rockets from Musk's Space X Falcon 9 family have launched 469 times. By contrast, Blue Origin has completed a mere 31 successful launches of its New Shepard vehicle, including 11 crewed suborbital flights.
Earlier this year, Blue Origin launched its larger, reusable rocket, New Glenn (named after John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth) from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The company says this operates like a 'commercial airliner (but with cleaner fuel)', will lead to 'significantly less waste and cost' and can carry 13 metric tons to geostationary transfer orbit and 45 metric tons to low Earth orbit.
Nevertheless, Blue Origin remains in second place in this space battle. The leader, SpaceX, currently builds and launches two rockets: the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. A feature of these rockets has been the development of booster stages that return to Earth for refurbishment, a revolutionary process which saves money and has helped SpaceX undercut competitors.
The company also builds and flies Dragon, the space capsule that can carry crew and cargo to the International Space Station, and is working on a large rocket and spacecraft system called Starship that will be able to carry massive payloads to space. Starship may even carry astronauts to Mars and set up colonies there, if Musk gets his way.
'As it stands, Musk's SpaceX is the competition's undisputed leader: it regularly sends astronauts into orbit, while Bezos's Blue Origin has yet to launch anyone beyond the outer edge of space,' Politico recently noted.
SpaceX and Blue Origin have clashed in court over billions of dollars in government funding, and the billionaires themselves traded barbs on the Musk-owned X, with Musk rivals worried that he is aiming to create a monopoly in the private space industry.
'People are concerned what's in place to stop it,' said one space industry lobbyist. 'You're talking about two of the most unpredictable people in the world getting together. It's not [a case of] chocolate and peanut butter, and you get a great combination. You're talking about world dominance here.'
Blue Origin is trying to raise alarms about potential unfair advantages in the space race, Politico reported. 'Elon wants a monopoly in space,' argued a person familiar with Blue Origin's Washington strategy.
All of which means that Monday's launch may have more at stake than six women and their pre-flight beauty regimens.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Herald Scotland
3 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Private Japanese lunar lander heads towards touchdown in the Moon's far north
The encore comes two years after the company's first moonshot ended in a crash landing, giving rise to the name Resilience for its successor lander. Resilience holds a rover with a shovel to gather lunar dirt as well as a Swedish artist's toy-size red house that will be lowered onto the Moon's dusty surface. Long the province of governments, the Moon became a target of private outfits in 2019, with more flops than wins along the way. Launched in January from Florida on a long, roundabout journey, Resilience entered lunar orbit last month. Deployment of @Firefly_Space's Blue Ghost lunar lander confirmed — SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 15, 2025 It shared a SpaceX ride with Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost, which reached the Moon faster and became the first private entity to successfully land there in March. Another US company, Intuitive Machines, arrived at the Moon a few days after Firefly. But the tall, spindly lander face-planted in a crater near the Moon's south pole and was declared dead within hours. Resilience is targeting the top of the Moon, a less forbidding place than the shadowy bottom. The ispace team chose a flat area with few boulders in Mare Frigoris or Sea of Cold, a long and narrow region full of craters and ancient lava flows that stretches across the near side's northern tier. Once settled with power and communication flowing, the 7.5-foot Resilience will beam back pictures, expected several hours or more after touchdown. It will be at least the weekend, according to ispace, before the lander lowers the piggybacking rover onto the lunar surface. Made of carbon fibre-reinforced plastic with four wheels, ispace's European-built rover — named Tenacious — sports a high-definition camera to scout out the area and a shovel to scoop up some lunar dirt for Nasa. The rover, weighing just five kilograms, will stick close to the lander, going in circles at a speed of less than one inch per second. It is capable of venturing up to two-thirds of a mile from the lander and should be operational throughout the two-week mission, the period of daylight. Besides science and tech experiments, there is an artistic touch. The rover holds a tiny, Swedish-style red cottage with white trim and a green door, dubbed the Moonhouse by creator Mikael Genberg, for placement on the lunar surface. Takeshi Hakamada, CEO and founder of ispace, considers the latest moonshot 'merely a stepping stone', with its next, much bigger lander launching by 2027 with Nasa involvement, and even more to follow. 'We're not trying to corner the market. We're trying to build the market,' Jeremy Fix, chief engineer for ispace's US subsidiary, said at a conference last month. 'It's a huge market, a huge potential.' Mr Fix noted that ispace, like other businesses, does not have 'infinite funds' and cannot afford repeated failures. While not divulging the cost of the current mission, company officials said it is less than the first one which exceeded 100 million dollars.
BreakingNews.ie
3 hours ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Private Japanese lunar lander heads towards touchdown in the Moon's far north
A private lunar lander from Japan is closing in on the Moon, aiming for a touchdown in the unexplored far north with a mini rover. The Moon landing attempt by Tokyo-based company ispace on Friday Japan time is the latest entry in the rapidly expanding commercial lunar rush. Advertisement The encore comes two years after the company's first moonshot ended in a crash landing, giving rise to the name Resilience for its successor lander. Resilience holds a rover with a shovel to gather lunar dirt as well as a Swedish artist's toy-size red house that will be lowered onto the Moon's dusty surface. Long the province of governments, the Moon became a target of private outfits in 2019, with more flops than wins along the way. Launched in January from Florida on a long, roundabout journey, Resilience entered lunar orbit last month. Advertisement Deployment of @Firefly_Space 's Blue Ghost lunar lander confirmed — SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 15, 2025 It shared a SpaceX ride with Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost, which reached the Moon faster and became the first private entity to successfully land there in March. Another US company, Intuitive Machines, arrived at the Moon a few days after Firefly. But the tall, spindly lander face-planted in a crater near the Moon's south pole and was declared dead within hours. Resilience is targeting the top of the Moon, a less forbidding place than the shadowy bottom. The ispace team chose a flat area with few boulders in Mare Frigoris or Sea of Cold, a long and narrow region full of craters and ancient lava flows that stretches across the near side's northern tier. Advertisement Once settled with power and communication flowing, the 7.5-foot Resilience will beam back pictures, expected several hours or more after touchdown. It will be at least the weekend, according to ispace, before the lander lowers the piggybacking rover onto the lunar surface. Made of carbon fibre-reinforced plastic with four wheels, ispace's European-built rover — named Tenacious — sports a high-definition camera to scout out the area and a shovel to scoop up some lunar dirt for Nasa. The rover, weighing just five kilograms, will stick close to the lander, going in circles at a speed of less than one inch per second. Advertisement It is capable of venturing up to two-thirds of a mile from the lander and should be operational throughout the two-week mission, the period of daylight. Besides science and tech experiments, there is an artistic touch. The rover holds a tiny, Swedish-style red cottage with white trim and a green door, dubbed the Moonhouse by creator Mikael Genberg, for placement on the lunar surface. Takeshi Hakamada, CEO and founder of ispace, considers the latest moonshot 'merely a stepping stone', with its next, much bigger lander launching by 2027 with Nasa involvement, and even more to follow. Advertisement 'We're not trying to corner the market. We're trying to build the market,' Jeremy Fix, chief engineer for ispace's US subsidiary, said at a conference last month. 'It's a huge market, a huge potential.' Mr Fix noted that ispace, like other businesses, does not have 'infinite funds' and cannot afford repeated failures. While not divulging the cost of the current mission, company officials said it is less than the first one which exceeded 100 million dollars.
Western Telegraph
3 hours ago
- Western Telegraph
Private Japanese lunar lander heads towards touchdown in the Moon's far north
The Moon landing attempt by Tokyo-based company ispace on Friday Japan time is the latest entry in the rapidly expanding commercial lunar rush. The encore comes two years after the company's first moonshot ended in a crash landing, giving rise to the name Resilience for its successor lander. Resilience holds a rover with a shovel to gather lunar dirt as well as a Swedish artist's toy-size red house that will be lowered onto the Moon's dusty surface. Long the province of governments, the Moon became a target of private outfits in 2019, with more flops than wins along the way. Launched in January from Florida on a long, roundabout journey, Resilience entered lunar orbit last month. Deployment of @Firefly_Space's Blue Ghost lunar lander confirmed — SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 15, 2025 It shared a SpaceX ride with Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost, which reached the Moon faster and became the first private entity to successfully land there in March. Another US company, Intuitive Machines, arrived at the Moon a few days after Firefly. But the tall, spindly lander face-planted in a crater near the Moon's south pole and was declared dead within hours. Resilience is targeting the top of the Moon, a less forbidding place than the shadowy bottom. The ispace team chose a flat area with few boulders in Mare Frigoris or Sea of Cold, a long and narrow region full of craters and ancient lava flows that stretches across the near side's northern tier. Once settled with power and communication flowing, the 7.5-foot Resilience will beam back pictures, expected several hours or more after touchdown. It will be at least the weekend, according to ispace, before the lander lowers the piggybacking rover onto the lunar surface. Made of carbon fibre-reinforced plastic with four wheels, ispace's European-built rover — named Tenacious — sports a high-definition camera to scout out the area and a shovel to scoop up some lunar dirt for Nasa. The rover, weighing just five kilograms, will stick close to the lander, going in circles at a speed of less than one inch per second. It is capable of venturing up to two-thirds of a mile from the lander and should be operational throughout the two-week mission, the period of daylight. Besides science and tech experiments, there is an artistic touch. The rover holds a tiny, Swedish-style red cottage with white trim and a green door, dubbed the Moonhouse by creator Mikael Genberg, for placement on the lunar surface. Takeshi Hakamada, CEO and founder of ispace, considers the latest moonshot 'merely a stepping stone', with its next, much bigger lander launching by 2027 with Nasa involvement, and even more to follow. 'We're not trying to corner the market. We're trying to build the market,' Jeremy Fix, chief engineer for ispace's US subsidiary, said at a conference last month. 'It's a huge market, a huge potential.' Mr Fix noted that ispace, like other businesses, does not have 'infinite funds' and cannot afford repeated failures. While not divulging the cost of the current mission, company officials said it is less than the first one which exceeded 100 million dollars.
