Lauren Sánchez, Gayle King Are Flying To Space On Blue Origin’s All-Female Mission

Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’s privately funded space venture, announced its next flight into space with an all-female crew. In a press release on Thursday, the firm shared that Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sánchez will take a 10-minute flight to space from a West Texas launchpad this spring.

This mission will be the first time since Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo flight in 1963 that an all-female crew will be on a human-crewed spaceflight leaving Earth, according to Blue Origin.

The all-female crew

Lauren Sánchez, who is Bezos’ fiancée, was instrumental in bringing the group of women together. The third-generation Mexican American journalist is a licensed helicopter pilot who founded Black Ops Aviation, the first female-owned and operated aerial film and production company. In 2024, she gained an Elling Halvorson Vertical Flight Hall of Fame Award for her expertise as a helicopter pilot and aviation businesswoman.

Amanda Nguyen is a bioastronautics research scientist with a Harvard degree. Nguyen was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and awarded TIME’s Woman of the Year for her advocacy for sexual violence survivors. She also worked on the last NASA shuttle mission, STS-135, and the Kepler exoplanet mission and is the first Vietnamese and Southeast Asian female astronaut.

Aisha Bowe, a former NASA rocket scientist, entrepreneur, and global STEM advocate. Bowe, who comes from a Bahamian background, hopes her journey from community college to space will motivate young Bahamians and others to chase their dreams.

Award-winning journalist and CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King will also join the crew of women flying to space. According to the press release, King is “honored to be part of Blue Origin’s first all-female flight team and looks forward to stepping out of her comfort zone.”

Singer Katy Perry is among the best-selling music artists of all time, with over 115 billion streams. In addition to being a pop star, Perry is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. Perry hopes her trip to space will encourage her daughter and others to reach for the stars.

Lastly, Kerianne Flynn, the notable film producer with a background in fashion and human resources, says she has always been “drawn to exploration, adventure, and space. She hopes her Blue Origin space mission “will serve as an inspiration for her son, Dex, and the next generation of dreamers to reach for the stars.”

The NS-31 mission

The New Shepard rocket is named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space. The rocket uses a fully reusable, suborbital rocket system, ideal for human flight. This mission will be the NS-31 11th human spaceflight for the New Shepard Rocket and the 31st in its history, according to the BBC.

A trip on the New Shepard takes around 11 minutes. There are no pilots, making it fully autonomous. Those on board go past the Karman line, which is known as the edge of space.

Feature image credits: Angela Kohler /Gage Skidmore/ ABC