Katy Perry, Gayle King and philanthropist and Jeff Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sánchez have officially made interstellar history. The three public figures along with three other female astronauts launched into space on Monday on a Blue Origin rocket.
This mission marks the first all-female spaceflight since 1963 when Valentina Tereshkova of the former Soviet Union became the first woman to take a solo mission into space. The other members of the flight included former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics research scientist and civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen and filmmaker Kerianne Flynn.
Altogether, the flight lasted about 10 minutes and 30 seconds. The crew could be heard over the livestream cheering and reacting to seeing the moon. The live feed started to glitch around five minutes in with 305,000 viewers. Though it didn’t appear on the live stream, Perry did make good on her promise to sing in space, singing “What a Wonderful World” when the astronauts returned to their seats after Zero-G.
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) April 14, 2025
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Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and Blue Origin as well as Sánchez’s fiancé, was the one to open the capsule and welcome the women back to Earth. Both Perry and King were seen kissing the ground. As for Sánchez, her first words out of the capsule were “Where are my babies?”
Sánchez later said that what she experienced was indescribable but she tried, saying seeing Earth was “quiet but very alive.” She also struggled to hold back tears as she recounted the “feeling of joy” she experienced.
“I’m so proud of this crew. Gayle — we were just talking in the capsule — doesn’t even have ear piercings. She’s so afraid to do anything, and she got in that capsule. I think it profoundly changed her,” Sánchez said. “I hope that more people get to see this because I don’t even know how much it’s going to change me. And I want to thank the Blue Team.”
“I’ve never been more proud of my friend than today,” Oprah Winfrey said in an on-site interview on Monday. Winfrey emphasized that her longtime friend, King, has struggled with flying for years. “This is bigger than going to space … This is overcoming a wall of fear, a barrier.”
King also shared that she was proud of herself for overcoming her fear. “It’s such a reminder about how we need to do better, be better. Do better, be better human beings,” the journalist said. “It’s so nasty and so vitriolic nowadays. If everybody could experience that peace that we had up there and the kindness and what it takes to do what we did — all the people that it took to get us up there and get us back safely. I’ll never ever ever forget.”
As for Perry, she explained why she brought a flower into space in honor of her daughter Daisy. The pop star also elaborated on her song choice, saying, “It’s not about me.”
“It’s about a collective energy in there. It’s about us. It’s about making space for future women and taking up space and belonging. It’s about this wonderful world that we see right out there and appreciating it. This is all for the benefit of Earth,” Perry said.
