Katy Perry and five other women have been blasted into space on an all-female rocket launch.
Lauren Sanchez, Jeff Bezos’s partner, was also sent to space on board the rocket made by Blue Origin, the Amazon’s founder’s private space company.
It is the first mission to space entirely crewed by women for more than six decades. The crew was chosen by Sanchez, and also included CBS Mornings presenter Gayle King, former Nasa rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, astronaut and activist Amanda Nguyen and movie producer Kerianne Flynn.
Watched by celebrities including Khloe Kardashian, Oprah and Bezos himself, the six were launched from Blue Origin’s launchpad in West Texas. “I don’t think I realised how emotional it was going to be,” Kardashian said on the company’s live stream.
Oprah visibly wept as her best friend, TV presenter Gayle King, flew at almost 2,000 miles per hour off the Earth and experienced zero gravity. Inside the capsule, the new astronauts could be heard exclaiming at their view of the Moon and the experience of floating around the capsule.
Just over 10 minutes after they were shot into space, the crew of six landed back down in the desert.
Blue Origin Flight NS-31 is the first launch with an all-female crew since Russian astronaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo space flight in 1963.
The company has sent a range of celebrities – including Bezos himself – into space as part of promotion for what it hopes will eventually become a regular form of commercial space tourism.
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