Katy Perry heads to space: Live Blue Origin launch updates as singer leads A-list crew embarking on historic mission

Tune in to the live stream of the Blue Origin space mission, showcasing the inaugural all-woman crew as they ascend into space aboard Jeff Bezos’s spacecraft.

Blue Origin will commence a webcast prior to the launch window opening at 8:30 am local time (2:30 pm UK time).

Oprah Winfrey is among the notable personalities present to witness the landmark launch of the all-female NS-31 crew in Texas.

Final pre-flight checks are complete at the launch site as anticipation builds for the imminent takeoff of NS-31.

The all-female team is secured inside the capsule, and the hatch is now sealed.

Follow the launch in real-time via our live stream.

Witness the moments captured as the all-female crew participated in the traditional bell-ringing ceremony just prior to entering the New Shepard rocket for their space voyage.

Katy Perry, Lauren Sanchez, Gayle King, Amanda Nguyen, Aisha Bowe, and Kerianne Flynn are potentially just ten minutes away from their journey to space as the launch window approaches.

Blue Origin has confirmed that the bell-ringing is a ‘New Shepard tradition’.

Stay with us for ongoing live launch updates.

A final message from Jeff Bezos to the all-female crew has been revealed, with the Amazon founder expressing, ‘I want to go with you’.

Bezos, whose fiancée Lauren Sanchez meticulously selected the NS-31 crew, voiced his eagerness to learn about the transformative impact of the experience.

When you get back, I want to hear how it has changed you. I love you all.

Speaking on the Blue Origin livestream, Sánchez noted Bezos’s post-spaceflight state as being “more grounded”.

She recounted his words: ‘He told me that it’s going to change me more than I know.’

Actress Olivia Munn has described today’s Blue Origin all-female space mission as ‘a bit gluttonous’ in a recent interview.

The actress voiced her perspective during an appearance on Today With Jenna And Friends on Thursday, April 3rd.

Questioning the purpose of the mission, Munn stated: ‘What are they doing? Like why? You know what I mean? I know that this is probably not the cool thing to say, but there are so many other things that are so important in the world right now.’

Munn continued to Jenna, ‘But what’s the point? Is it historic that you guys are going on a ride? I think it’s a bit gluttonous and I just think there are – the cover of Elle Magazine? I mean, I don’t know.’

Read the full story here:

The all-female crew has reached the launch pad as they gear up for their space launch.

The women are about to enter the capsule that will carry them on the historic 11-minute space journey.

Aisha Bowe was spotted looking out of the window upon arrival at the Texas launch site.

Gayle King appeared emotional upon arrival, while Jeff Bezos, also in a blue spacesuit, shared a kiss with Lauren Sanchez.

Katy Perry posted a simple three-word message, ‘I LOVE YOU,’ as she prepares for space launch with the all-female NS-31 crew.

This latest tweet from the “Firework” singer follows a heartfelt message posted on her Instagram page yesterday.

I’ve dreamt of going to space for 15 years and tomorrow that dream becomes a reality. I am so honoured to be alongside five other incredible and inspiring women as we become the first ever all-female flight space crew!

Jeff Bezos (left) and Elon Musk at Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony

Today’s launch, featuring high-profile women, is intended to maintain public interest in Blue Origin’s endeavors within the competitive space tourism sector.

Virgin Galactic, offering a comparable sub-orbital experience, stands as Bezos’s primary competitor in passenger spaceflights.

However, Blue Origin’s future goals include orbital space tourism, directly challenging Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

The world’s two wealthiest individuals are leveraging reusable rockets for commercial satellite launches and envision a future of routine space travel for humans.

Musk’s SpaceX is currently leading the race with its Falcon 9 rocket having conducted over 400 launches.

Yet, Bezos is making notable strides and today’s launch could boost momentum.

In January, Blue Origin’s considerably more powerful New Glenn rocket successfully completed its inaugural unmanned orbital mission.

Dr. Simeon Barber, a space expert from the Open University, commented at the time:

The billionaire space race had become a one-horse race with SpaceX achieving so much so fast.But we want competition from Blue Origin because that will lead to better rockets… with more regular flights.

The six women participating in Blue Origin’s pioneering NS-31 mission – the first all-female crew in space – will wear spacesuits featuring patches that represent their individual accomplishments.

Blue Origin has provided explanations for each symbol:

Watch the moment Katy Perry, Lauren Sanchez, Gayle King, Amanda Nguyen, Aisha Bowe, and Kerianne Flynn posed in their bespoke spacesuits on the eve of today’s launch in Texas.

Behold the New Shepard rocket poised for its space launch this morning for a landmark 11-minute flight.

The launch window is set to open at 8:30 am local time (2:30 pm UK time).

Stay tuned for the latest updates on the NS-31 mission.

Lauren Sanchez has shared insights into her role in designing the distinctive blue spacesuits for today’s launch.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Sanchez revealed that she approached Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim, co-founders of Monse, five months prior.

Garcia and Kim, also serving as creative directors for Oscar de la Renta, designed her 2024 Met Gala attire.

Sanchez noted initial discussions centered around making the suits more comfortable and female-friendly.

‘Let’s reimagine the flight suit. Typically, these suits are designed for men, and subsequently tailored for women.’

Mr. Garcia stated to the newspaper:

We really didn’t know where to start. There’s no precedent. All the references are men’s spacesuits.

Simplicity was important, and comfort, and fi. But we also wanted something that was a little dangerous, like a motocross outfit. Or a ski suit. Flattering and sexy.

Regarding the final design, Ms. Sanchez remarked: ‘I think the suits are elegant, yet they also bring a touch of spice to space.’

Lauren Sanchez unveiled her reason for embarking on a space journey, occurring just two months prior to her lavish wedding with billionaire Jeff Bezos in Italy.

Earlier this month, the former TV personality told ELLE magazine about a guiding principle she and Bezos share.

‘We have a saying in our house, “Life takes off on the other side of fear,”‘ Sanchez explained, referencing her life with Amazon magnate Bezos.

Read the full story here:

One of the six women launching into space aboard the Blue Origin rocket shared that she feels ‘justice’ will be served upon launching from Texas.

Amanda Nguyen, a civil rights campaigner instrumental in drafting landmark legislation for rape victims, recounted that during Neil Armstrong’s moon landing in 1969, bombs were ‘raining down’ on her native Vietnam.

When asked for a single word to summarize her feelings before this historic mission, she simply replied, ‘justice’.

Speaking to CBS just two hours prior to takeoff, Ms. Nguyen articulated:

When my family looked at the sky, they saw death but tomorrow they will see the first Vietnamese woman in space.

And to me that represents that we can achieve whatever it is, no matter who we are or where we come from.

Her poignant words prompted fellow NS-31 crew member Katy Perry to shed a tear.

While Katy Perry jokingly declared the all-female Blue Origin crew would “put the ‘ass’ in astronaut,” the question remains: will they officially be considered astronauts?

Traditionally, an astronaut is defined as someone ‘trained for space travel’.

However, it is unlikely that Perry and her crew will be recognized as astronauts by the Federal Aviation Administration, NASA, or the US military, all of which have specific eligibility criteria for commercial astronauts.

In 2021, amid the rise of space tourism, the FAA clarified that aspiring astronauts must be part of the flight crew and contribute to spaceflight safety, tightening the definition.

This adjustment was largely seen as an effort to temper the astronautical aspirations of billionaire space pioneers like Jeff Bezos and Sir Richard Branson, who might not fit the US government’s updated definition.

Posing alongside Lauren Sanchez in her custom spacesuit, Katy Perry quipped, ‘we’re putting the ‘ass’ in astronaut!’

Aware this flight will secure their place in history as the first all-female crew in space, these six women may also be the first to have professional hair and makeup services before a mission.

Sanchez remarked, ‘Who wouldn’t want to get glam before a flight,’ before joking about the potential hazard of fake eyelashes ‘flying around the capsule’.

Aisha Bowe mentioned testing her desired launch-day hairstyle during a skydiving experience in Dubai, while Amanda Nguyen confirmed she would be wearing lipstick.

I think it’s so important for people to see us like that. This dichotomy of engineer and scientist, and then beauty and fashion. We contain multitudes. Women are multitudes. I’m going to be wearing lipstick.

Katy Perry has shared her ‘psychological’ preparation for the upcoming all-female Blue Origin space mission.

The 40-year-old music sensation has been self-motivating by focusing on inspiring others, studying astrophysics literature, and connecting with her ‘feminine divine’ in anticipation of this space tourism venture.

Perry spoke with the Associated Press at her Ontario, California rehearsal space on Wednesday, in the days leading up to her departure for training in Texas.

She elaborated: ‘I am talking to myself every day and going, “You’re brave, you’re bold, you are doing this for the next generation to inspire so many different people but especially young girls to go, ‘I’ll go to space in the future.’ No limitations.”‘

Perry recently disclosed to Elle magazine that her participation is ‘for my daughter Daisy,’ her child with actor Orlando Bloom, ‘to inspire her to never have limits on her dreams.’

I’m just so excited to see the inspiration through her eyes and the light in her eyes when she sees that rocket go, and she goes back to school the next day and says ‘Mom went to space’.

She also shared in an Instagram video her surprise at discovering during space training that the capsule was named ‘Tortoise’ and adorned with a “feather” design – both nicknames given to her by her parents.

There are no coincidences and I’m just so grateful for these confirmations and so grateful that I feel like something bigger than me is steering the ship.

Katy Perry provided a behind-the-scenes peek inside the capsule, revealing her 15-year-long aspiration to journey to space, ahead of today’s launch.

Dressed in her blue spacesuit, she addressed the camera and gave a tour of the ‘capsule’ used for their training sessions.

Perry shared in her post caption: ‘I’ve dreamt of going to space for 15 years and tomorrow that dream becomes a reality!

‘The Taking Up Space Crew launches tomorrow morning at 7am CT and I am SO honored to be alongside 5 other incredible and inspiring women as we become the first ever all female flight space crew!’

On Thursday, February 27th, Jeff Bezos announced an all-female crew to pilot the next Blue Origin rocket launch – the 11th manned mission of its New Shepard capsule.

The Amazon founder emphasized that this mission would be a historic event, marking the first all-female crew in space and the first spaceflight without male participants since Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo venture in 1963.

Lauren Sanchez, Bezos’s fiancée, personally selected the crew.

Sanchez told Elle magazine that she chose her crew members based on their proven capacity to inspire others.

She explained that each woman would be able to articulate their experiences during the trip, contributing to the vision of future generations of space explorers.

Following today’s launch, both Sanchez and Bezos will have journeyed aboard New Shepard. The Amazon founder and Washington Post owner participated in its inaugural flight in July 2021, describing it as ‘the best day ever’.

The globally acclaimed 40-year-old singer boasts over 70 million album sales, making her one of the best-selling artists worldwide. Forbes has twice designated the Californian musician as the highest-paid in the industry. She is celebrated for hits like ‘Firework’, ‘Roar’, and ‘Teenage Dream’. Formerly married to Russell Brand, Perry is currently engaged to British actor Orlando Bloom, with whom she shares a daughter.

Sanchez, 55, is a journalist and a New York Times bestselling author of children’s books, recognized for her anchoring role on Fox Sports Network. She has also made film appearances, including ‘We Bought a Zoo’, ‘White House Down’, and ‘Ted 2’ as a reporter. In 2018, her relationship with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos became public, and they announced their engagement in May 2023.

King, 70, is widely known as a co-host for ‘CBS Mornings’, a daily breakfast news program airing from 7 am to 9 am on CBS. As a critic of Donald Trump, King famously noted the lack of diversity at his presidential inauguration in January. She also serves as editor-at-large for O, The Oprah Magazine, and was named one of Time magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People of 2019’.

Nguyen, 33, is a civil rights activist and social entrepreneur, founder of Rise, an organization dedicated to protecting the rights of sexual assault and rape survivors. She played a pivotal role in drafting the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Rights Act of 2016, granting statutory rights to rape victims, and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three years later. Nguyen will be the first Vietnamese woman to venture into space.

Bowe, 38, is a former NASA rocket scientist, entrepreneur, and global STEM advocate. Her lifelong fascination with science fiction led her to pursue a degree in aerospace engineering and a career with NASA, inspired by a graduate professor.

Flynn, 57, is an American filmmaker known for her contributions to independent cinema, including notable projects such as ‘The Automatic Hate’ (2015), ‘This Changes Everything’ (2018), and ‘Lilly’ (2024).

MailOnline’s science correspondent William Hunter provides a breakdown of the projected 11-minute NS-31 mission timeline.

The mission begins with a launch aboard a Blue Shepard rocket, accelerating to over twice the speed of sound.

The booster stage detaches, and the capsule enters a state of freefall, during which the crew experiences weightlessness.

Reaching an altitude of 62 miles (100km), the capsule crosses the Karman Line, marking the official entry into space.

The booster autonomously navigates back to Earth, executing a controlled soft landing.

The capsule deploys parachutes for a gentle touchdown.

Today marks the flight of Lauren Sanchez, Katy Perry, and the all-female crew into space aboard Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin spacecraft.

During their brief 11-minute spaceflight, the New Shepard capsule will ascend to an altitude of 62 miles (100km), crossing the Karman Line, widely recognized as the boundary of space.

Upon entering freefall, the crew will experience approximately three to four minutes of weightlessness, allowing them to unbuckle and admire the expansive view.

However, the period of weightlessness will be brief as the capsule quickly commences its descent back to Earth, deploying parachutes for a safe landing.

Read the complete article and view a step-by-step graphic of the mission here:

Welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage of the historic launch of the first all-female crew into space aboard Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket.

Lauren Sanchez, fiancée of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, will lead a six-woman mission. The crew includes celebrated singer Katy Perry, accomplished journalist and TV host Gayle King, prominent civil rights advocate Amanda Nguyen, former rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, and acclaimed filmmaker Kerianne Flynn.

This NS-31 flight, the latest under the New Shepard program, aims to ‘create a lasting impact that will inspire generations’ in the realm of space tourism.

The women will ascend from Earth within a reusable, autonomous rocket for an 11-minute journey, briefly entering space before returning.

The launch is taking place in Texas at 8:30 am local time (2:30 pm UK time).

Follow our live coverage for up-to-the-minute updates, news and video from our science correspondents at MailOnline in London and Dailymail.com in New York.