From Katy Perry to Jeff Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sanchez: The 6 joining Blue Origin's all-women space mission

Katy Perry is preparing for a journey into space.

She will be travelling alongside Jeff Bezos’ fiancee, Lauren Sanchez, and three other women.

Blue Origin, Bezos’ rocket company, announced the all-female celebrity crew on Thursday.

ALSO READ | How will Nasa’s SPHEREx telescope change our understanding of the cosmos?

This marks the 11th human spaceflight for **Blue Origin** . Bezos himself joined his brother on the first mission.

The all-woman team will venture into space aboard the New Shepard spacecraft, which is set to launch from the West Texas desert this spring.

But who are the other women on this mission? What are the objectives of this expedition?

We will answer these questions.

Who are the six women set to travel on Blue Origin’s all-women spaceflight?

According to **Blue Origin** , this will be the first all-female space mission since the Soviet Union’s Valentina Tereshkova went on a solo flight in 1963.

More from Explainers

Is your house heating up and making you miserable? Paint it white How ChatGPT is becoming everyone’s BFF and why that’s dangerous

While an exact launch date has not been confirmed, the company has stated that the mission will take place this spring.

New Shepard’s 11th human flight, NS-31, will carry Katy Perry, Lauren Sanchez, Gayle King, Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, and Kerianne Flynn.

But who are they? Here’s a look at the crew:

Katy Perry

Pop star **Katy Perry** , one of the six women joining the flight, is the biggest-selling female artist in Capitol Records’ history and among the world’s best-selling musicians, with over 115 billion streams.

She is also a former host of American Idol.

The award-winning singer of “E.T.” and “Firework” has sold more than 143 million albums globally. Beyond her success as a pop icon, she also serves as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

Impact Shorts

More Shorts

Ghaziabad woman dead, pilgrims attacked in bus… How Nepal’s Gen-Z protests turned into a living hell for Indian tourists

Were bodyguards involved in Charlie Kirk’s shooting? The many conspiracies surrounding the killing

Her “Lifetimes Tour” is set to run from 23 April to 11 November, meaning the spaceflight is expected to take place before then.

“If you had told me I’d be part of the first all-female crew in space, I would have believed you. Nothing was beyond my imagination as a child,” Perry said in a statement quoted by Newsweek.

Lauren Sanchez

**Lauren Sanchez** , Jeff Bezos’ fiancee, has been credited with bringing the mission together, according to Blue Origin.

She is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, a New York Times bestselling author, a pilot, vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund, and a mother of three.

Engaged to Bezos since last year, Sanchez selected the crew and played a key role in organising the 10-minute flight.

In 2016, she founded Black Ops Aviation, the first female-owned and operated aerial film and production company.

Her debut children’s book, “The Fly Who Flew to Space”, became a New York Times bestseller in 2024. That same year, she received the Elling Halvorson Vertical Flight Hall of Fame Award for her achievements as a helicopter pilot and aviation entrepreneur.

“She is honoured to lead a team of explorers on a mission that will challenge their perspectives of Earth, empower them to share their own stories and create a lasting impact that will inspire generations to come,” Blue Origin said in a statement.

ALSO READ | What is Elon Musk's plan to make driving on the Moon possible

Gayle King

An award-winning journalist and co-host of CBS Mornings, Gayle King is also an editor-at-large for ‘Oprah Daily and has long been known as Oprah Winfrey’s best friend.

She also hosts the SiriusXM call-in show “Gayle King in the House.”

“In a career spanning decades, King has been recognised as a gifted, compassionate interviewer able to break through the noise and create meaningful conversations,” Blue Origin said in a statement.

“I don’t know how to explain being terrified and excited at the same time. It’s like how I felt about to deliver a baby,” King said during the announcement on CBS Mornings.

Having recently turned 70, King sees this as the start of a new chapter in her life.

“I thought I wanted to open myself up to new adventures and step out of my comfort zone,” she said.

Before agreeing to join the mission, King sought advice from her children and Oprah Winfrey, CBS News reported. Although she admitted to feeling some fear, she said she is ready for lift-off.

Aisha Bowe

Bowe is a former Nasa rocket scientist, entrepreneur, and global Stem advocate.

She is the CEO of STEMBoard, an engineering firm that has twice been featured on the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies. She also founded Lingo, an edtech company aiming to equip one million students with essential technology skills.

Reflecting on the upcoming flight, Bowe said, “Every step of my journey, from community college to Nasa, entrepreneurship and now space, has been about showing that no dream is out of reach. Flying alongside these remarkable women, we are expanding the art of the possible."

Of Bahamian heritage, she hopes her journey will inspire young people in the Bahamas and across the world to pursue their ambitions.

Amanda Nguyen

Amanda Nguyen is a researcher in bioastronautics, which is the study of supporting life in space.

A Harvard graduate, she has conducted research at the Harvard Center for Astrophysics, MIT, Nasa, and the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences.

Amanda contributed to Nasa’s final shuttle mission, STS-135, as well as the Kepler exoplanet project. Beyond her work in space science, she is a key advocate for survivors of sexual violence, earning a Nobel Peace Prize nomination and being named Time’s Woman of the Year.

She will become the first Vietnamese woman in space. Describing her as the first Vietnamese and Southeast Asian female astronaut, Blue Origin called Nguyen’s flight “a symbol of reconciliation between the US and Vietnam, and will highlight science as a tool for peace.”

Kerianne Flynn

Flynn has spent the past decade working in the nonprofit sector and film production.

In 2024, she produced ‘Lilly’, a film depicting the story of Lilly Ledbetter, the American activist whose Supreme Court case led to the passing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009.

She serves on the board of trustees at the Allen-Stevenson School in New York City and is part of the development committee for Hudson River Park.

Deeply passionate about the power of storytelling, Kerianne has produced films that spark meaningful conversations.

“Kerianne has always been drawn to exploration, adventure, and space, and hopes her Blue Origin space flight serves as an inspiration for her son, Dex, and the next generation of dreamers to reach for the stars,” the statement read.

What we know about the mission

This will be the 11th human spaceflight for the rocket and its 31st overall mission. So far, the programme has sent 52 people beyond the Karman line.

The most recent all-female space mission was the 1963 solo flight of Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, who became the first woman to travel to space.

ALSO READ | Can the ‘city-killer’ asteroid which could destroy Kolkata, Mumbai be stopped?

Blue Origin has yet to confirm the exact launch date.

A typical journey on New Shepard lasts approximately 11 minutes, according to the company. The spacecraft is fully autonomous, meaning there are no pilots, and it carries passengers past the internationally recognised boundary of space.

During the flight, the crew will experience a brief period of weightlessness while taking in views of Earth through large windows that make up over a third of the capsule’s exterior.

Blue Origin stated that the vehicle operates without assigned crew roles, as it is entirely automated. “Every person on board is a crew member − there are no pilots,” the company said in a statement.

New Shepard, named after Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut to travel to space, is Blue Origin’s fully reusable suborbital rocket system.

Its first crewed mission in July 2021 included Jeff Bezos and his brother Mark. Since then, the rocket has carried notable figures such as former NFL player Michael Strahan and Star Trek actor William Shatner, who, at 90 years old, became the oldest person to travel to space.

With inputs from agencies